


Darth Padmé and the mission to Ryloth

by Stirl999



Series: Revenge of the (kinder, gentler) Sith [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark padme, F/M, Force-Sensitive Padmé Amidala, Sith Padmé Amidala, Slave Trade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-06 03:10:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stirl999/pseuds/Stirl999
Summary: The young Sith/Senator and her apprentice embark on a diplomatic mission under the very watchful eyes of the Jedi.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I spoke too soon about no sequel, and this idea struck immediately.

"Good morning, your highness."

One of her husband's feet had slipped out of the blanket, and Padmé slapped at it playfully. She was leaning up in bed, still learning to enjoy the view of the sunrise from their new apartment at 500 Republica.

"You know I haven't been Queen for almost a year now, right?"

"And you won't be an Empress for, I don't know, at least a few more weeks, but it doesn't hurt to start." She looked back at Anakin, who was staring at her with an impossibly mischievous, yet entirely lustful grin.

"You're teasing me."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare tease a future Empress."

A flash of yellow glazed Padmé's brown eyes, and with a sudden hiss, she raised her hand at her husband and tendrils of blue lightning streaked towards him. He caught it with his own fingers, shooting out his own, the two connected by this twisted Sith magic until Padmé leaned down to kiss him ravenously.

"You really don't want to give the Republic a chance, do you?" Their little lightning play had ceased, and how she was nibbling at his neck.

"You're the one who taught me how useless it is. Not that I needed much convincing, growing up in Tatooine."

"Hmm. Sounds like you would have been a much better student to Sidious than I."

"Eh. Sidious wouldn't have had much use for my tongue," Anakin said, licking his lips. "Besides," he said, going back to the original subject, "Supreme Chancellor for life doesn't exactly have the same ring to it."

"No it doesn't. And you can't exactly be my co-Supreme-Chancellor-for-life. Not without some major changes to the constitution." Ugh, that really didn't roll off the tongue. "Emperor, on the other hand."

"Anakin the Great," he said with as much grandiosity as his young voice could muster. "I like the sound of that."

"More like Anakin the Horny." With a reluctant sigh she rose from the bed, leaving a confused looking Anakin still lying in bed.

"Huh," he groaned awkwardly. "I thought we were gonna...with all that dirty talk..."

"We can't be late to the meeting with the Supreme Chancellor." She looked sternly at him. "Better get dressed, Captain Skywalker."

"I'll take a nap instead," Anakin said, sulking. "Force knows I have plenty of time, seeing how long it takes you to get ready."

He dodged a pillow she flung at his face with the Force. "What," he said back as he struggled not to laugh at the dirty look she was giving him.

"Behave yourself, Skywalker. Maybe we can talk about sneaking off somewhere in the Senate building after the meeting."

As predictable as ever, she saw his face perk up at her words. A thought came to his mind, and he grinned devilishly at her. "How about Senator Organa's office? We haven't done it in there yet."

"A challenge, but not impossible. Maybe I can arrange for Mon to schedule a meeting for him later today."

"You know what we can say to him if we get caught."

"What?" Padmé narrowed her eyes, clearly not expecting anything productive to come out of her husband's mouth.

"That we can't help but go kriff each other in Alderaan-g places."

This time he couldn't dodge them as every pillow in the room flung themselves towards him, each striking him in the face. Still, he could see her holding back a grin, and could feel her amusement through the Force.

"You're a better Sith than comedian, Skywalker."

"Only cause I learned from the best." He blew a kiss at her and, silly and melodramatic as the gesture was, she pretended to catch it with one hand and place it lovingly on her own cheek.

* * *

The personality of Chancellor Bail Antilles was as bland as the man's face. He had ideals, but lacked the spine to carry them through, which made him emblematic for the Republic which he 'led'. The subject in front of them was the new anti-slavery bill, one that she herself had proposed. Slavery was already illegal, of course, but this bill would require a more active enforcement of the Republic's own laws. It should have been apparent to any Supreme Chancellor that the failure of the Republic to live up to its own ideals was a glaring weakness broadcast to the galaxy, yet her bill, on the verge of passage, now found itself stalled as various Senators from worlds who clearly wished to look the other way on the illicit trade sought to kill it.

"The ideas are nice, and slavery is of course abhorrent, but the provisions outlined in this bill are too...stringent. One could interpret it to void any  _legal_  contracts of indenture."

"Ryloth has many 'legal' contracts of indenture, doesn't it," Padmé said accusingly at Orn Free Taa. "In fact, I believe many of your most prominent donors hold hundreds, if not thousands, of 'legal' contracts."

The twi'lek senator looked angrily at the Supreme Chancellor. "I will not suffer such an attack on my integrity. Not by a  _newcomer_  such as Amidala."

Bail Antilles held up his hands, trying to pacify the two senators before him. "Senator Amidala has been with us long enough to respect her voice, and all senators stand equal before the Republic regardless of their tenure. But," he paused, looking timidly at her, eyes pleading for her to listen, "we should avoid throwing around baseless accusations at our brethren."

Padmé fumed, genuinely angry. She had know what to expect of course, having seen firsthand the ineptitude of the Republic firsthand during the blockade after having only heard about it from Sidious for many years. Yet she knew well enough that her former Sith master had been the one who had exacerbated much of the incompetence, so it disappointed her to find that, even after his death, the Senate was a useless instrument for improving the lives of those in the galaxy.

"With all due respect, the facts are what they are, Chancellor Antilles, despite our unwillingness to see them."

"Master Jedi," Bail Organa interjected, hoping to steer the conversation away from the growing hostility. "This bill seeks to wield your order as its instrument. How do you feel about it?" Organa was Antilles' replacement after the former Senator had ascended to the Chancellorship after Valorum's death, and many in the Senate whispered now that he would make a much better Chancellor than his fellow Alderaanian. He could actually save the Republic, Padmé thought. Which is why that couldn't happen.

"Strained, the Jedi are," Yoda replied. "Scattered around the galaxy we have been, trying to keep the peace. But work, we will, for this noble cause if instructed by the Republic."

"The state of the Republic is putrid indeed," the deep voice of Master Dooku added, causing the small Jedi grandmaster to give his former Padawan a sharp look of disapproval, "if we cannot even protect our own. It is true, Jedi are being sent left and right to quell one civil insurrection after another. I can't but help think that were we not so reactive, if we tried to prevent this infection of crises before they occur, that we may solve the root of all our problems."

So he would be an ally to her in this matter. "It is true, Master Jedi, that dissatisfaction with the Republic seems to be at an all time high. We are fortunate indeed that the conflicts are spread far across the galaxy from each other, independent of one another. Were there one to take advantage of the dissent, and lead them to speak with one voice, I fear what fate would befall us."

It was a comment meant to stir the Jedi from Serenno to thought, and it was a reference that only her and Anakin truly understood. Upon the death of Senator Palpatine, all his estate and belongings had been transferred to the custody of the Queen, especially seeing that he had no more living family. Over the years, her and Anakin had sliced through all of his files, uncovering bits and traces of his plans for the future. Dooku had been marked for 'exploitation' due to his clear disillusionment with the Republic, and Padmé sensed that he would have been a perfect, if temporary, instrument for Sidious in his plan to rip the Republic apart from the inside.

"Ryloth is a key world, and its concerns cannot be ignored," Antilles said.

_You mean, Orn Free Taa is a key supporter of yours, and you cannot afford to alienate him._

"Senator Amidala, you must compromise," the Supreme Chancellor continued.

"I will do what is necessary to make the galaxy a better place," Padmé said, seemingly placated. Her words were true, and it was good that her colleagues all saw her as some naive schoolgirl posing as a politician. "Senator Taa, Chancellor Antilles, with your permissions, I believe the best way to understand the concerns of Ryloth is to speak to its own people on their terms, in their homes. I myself can represent the bill before Governor Nikmas."

"Senator Taa?"

"Senator Amidala will always be welcomed on Ryloth, of course. We welcome a healthy discussion on the needs of our economy and our people. But...Ryloth has not been immune to the recent waves of insurrection that has gripped the Republic. The safety of Senator Amidala must be our paramount concern."

"I appreciate your concern, Senator Taa. But I have faced much worse."

"Perhaps a Jedi escort," Antilles offered, "will keep you safe."

"I trust my safety wholeheartedly to Captain Skywalker," Padmé protested. This suggestion from the Supreme Chancellor was wholly unwelcome. Ryloth, with its many slavers, might have been an optimal locale for her to further hone Anakin's training, but that could only happen away from the prying eyes of the Jedi. "He is in charge of my security, after all, and has neutralized many threats to my life in the past."

"On familiar ground, Senator Amidala." It was Dooku. He was not being so helpful now, and Padmé had a feeling that he wished to insert himself into this situation. "Ryloth would be an unfamiliar place for both of you."

"We do not wish to be intrusive, of course." This time it was Mace Windu, the third in the trio of Jedi that were in attendance. "Obi-Wan Kenobi has just returned from the Outer Rim. I trust you still remember him from the Trade Federation crisis. Maybe a familiar face will make our presence more natural."

"Of course I do," Padmé said, sensing Anakin tense from his post in the back of the room at the mention of the man who would have been his Jedi master. "Knight Kenobi will always be a friend of Naboo."

"Then it is settled," Antilles said conclusively. "Knight Kenobi will accompany you and Captain Skywalker during your negotiation. I trust you will come to an agreement that will secure the passage of this bill."

_You mean, secure your own flagging reputation._

"Very well then," Padmé relented. To protest further would be to invite suspicion.

"Master Windu," Antilles continued, "if you can instruct Knight Kenobi to keep an ear out for what is troubling Ryloth, I would appreciate any intelligence the Jedi can gather."

"Certainly, Chancellor Antilles. Anything we can do to further the cause of peace."

Padmé breathed a sigh of relief once the Jedi left. She could finally relax her shields. Looking around the room, she caught her husband engaging in small talk with the Senator from Alderaan, and walked over to join them.

"Ah, Senator Amidala," Bail said as she approached. "I never knew your husband was such a connoisseur of the arts."

"Oh," she asked with one eyebrow raised skeptically.

"Yes, he was asking me all about the paintings and statues in my office. Where they come from, their history, their meaning..."

"Ani has always been curious," Padmé said, catching the conspiratorial look in her husband's eye. "I'm happy to see that our time on Coruscant has expanded his...intellectual horizons." She took the older man's arm and steered him towards the Senate hallway. "I hate for either one of us to further delay you, Senator Organa. I hear that Senator Mothma is very eager to discuss with you the latest budget provisions..."


	2. Chapter 2

Owen Lars poked awkwardly at the dish in front of him, a slimey tentacle like substance dipped in a green sauce.

"Is this even cooked?"

"Enough to sterilize it," Padmé explained. "The Mon Calamarians believe that excessive heat takes away the raw vitalness of their food."

Their table was at one of the finest restaurants in Coruscant, and it had taken Padmé weeks to secure a reservation. Aquatic tanks brimming with exotic sea creatures surrounded them, giving off the impression that they were eating underwater, and also giving their table privacy, so that few could glance in upon them. Padmé was far from the only Senator, much less holoactors and singers and the richest barons and guild heads, who dined at A-Kw'a, so she was dismayed that her guests did not appear to be enjoying their meals. Well, at least one person was.

"It's not that bad once you chew through it," Beru Whitesun said happily. Padmé liked Owen's new girlfriend, an innocent who lacked any sense of pretense or guile. While she had heard that Beru had been reluctant to make the trip to Coruscant, once here she took everything in with ease, actually enjoying herself freely . It seemed odd that Beru was only a few years younger than her, and much older than Anakin, when the way she acted sometimes was almost like a child, and Padmé wondered if this could have been the life she led had politics and the Sith not taken hold of her life. Or Anakin's, had he the privilege of growing up free.

Her own husband squinted at his dish, only slightly less skeptical than his step-brother having come from the same waterless planet after all. He had gotten a sour fish dish, a bit safer than the eel his visiting family had unwittingly ordered. "The Mon Cal are aquatic themselves, no? Isn't it a bit...cannabalistic, for them to eat this stuff?"

"Does it make me a cannibal when I eat a Shaak, only because we both dwell on the same land?"

_I think what we do to each other comes pretty close, angel._

Padmé heard his remark through their bond and tried to hide her blush. Shmi, sensing the unspoken communication between the two, chalked it up to just another one of their inside jokes, of which they seemed to have many.

"The soup was amazing, Padmé. Don't tell me what was actually in it, but it was very good." Not that she wasn't grateful to Padmé for everything she had done for Anakin and her family, but Shmi had nevertheless been concerned a few years ago when Anakin had told her they were in a relationship. They were so young, and while Shmi knew her son had always pined for the Queen, she had been worried that he didn't fully understand what he was getting into. There was no denying that Padmé cared deeply for her son, but she was almost a decade older than him, and Shmi wondered whether this relationship was an odd phase for her, a fleeting physical attraction that she would get tired of soon, leaving Anakin horribly hurt in the aftermath.

A small part of her brain had wondered whether Padmé could be taking advantage of her son in some way she couldn't discern. She had done so much for them, after all, and on Tatooine there's always a motive, and no one helps anyone else out of pure generosity. Most of her fears were allayed in the months afterwards at seeing how genuinely happy and content they both were around each other, though there was still some mysterious bond between them that she didn't fully understand. Now, sitting with them in one of the finest restaurants in the galaxy, Shmi allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. He may not be a Jedi, but Ani was happy, and that was all that mattered, and he was still working to make the galaxy a better place, only with a trusted partner. And Shmi was still part of his life in a ways she never could have imagined, which would not have been the case had he gone along with Obi-Wan.

"I'm so sorry we won't be able to stay with you longer and show you the sights. This negotiation to Ryloth is critical to the passage of my bill, but I've instructed Dormé to pass along to you a list of places to see and the best restaurant recommendations, and she has been authorized to use my codes to book any place you wish."

"Oh Padmé, what you're doing for the slaves is wonderful. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you would embrace our cause as your own. I cherish every minute with you two as I can here, what you would accomplish will mean so much more. And I hate to trouble Dormé any more than we already have."

Anakin and Padmé exchanged another secretive glance at each other. Shmi certainly did not even know half of what they had done to free slaves on their training missions in the Outer Rim over the years, though Padmé wondered if the woman ever had any suspicions as to the identity of the two ghosts who had slaughtered Jabba's entourage and destroyed his palace. She also had a feeling that the Lars would prefer to dine at Dex's for the rest of the three days they were on planet rather than sample more galactic delicacies.

"I just don't get this stuff you guys eat in the Core," Owen grumbled.

"Owen," Cliegg snapped angrily at his fully grown son. He looked apologetically at Padmé. "I'm sorry, milady, but in all the years I raised my boy, I never expected that I would need to teach him etiquette in front of a galactic Senator...just wasn't something I ever..."

"It's okay, Cliegg. You're family, and it's been my pleasure hosting you here." In truth, Padmé rather enjoyed watching their discomfort in their new surroundings. Not for any reasons related to the Dark Side, but rather because it reminded her of how innocent Anakin had been when she had shown him everything outside of what Tatooine had to offer.

"...I mean a Hutt maybe, or a heavyweight smuggler, but those are folks we'd rather avoid anyway, so that's why I've always told my boy Owen, keep to ourselves, and keep away from trouble."

Still smiling, Shmi gently moved her husband's glass of fizz whiskey away from him. "Cliegg, honey, you're rambling. Let's take it easy for a few."

Their serene atmosphere was interrupted by the clanging of two droids, chased by a very flustered waiter.

"Threepio," Anakin asked. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to stay in the speeder." No wonder his mother insisted on giving him the droid back every time they met.

"Oh, my apologies Mistress Shmi, Master Anakin. I insisted on staying put but could not talk reason into this Artoo droid."

"What's that Artoo? Obi-Wan's arriving at our apartment in one hour?" Padmé frowned. "He's early. Tell him to take his time, and we'll pick him up."

"Hey," their gran server ran over grumpily. "Droids are not allowed in the restaurant."

Padmé gave Anakin a knowing look and winking, he nodded back at her. With a slight wave of his hand, he spoke to the waiter. "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

"These aren't the droids I'm looking for," the waiter repeated, eyes suddenly blank.

"Obi-Wan did manage to teach me a little bit," Anakin whispered to his mother, who stared at the scene in horror then surprise. He focused his attention back to the server.

"You will spread the word of the Senator's goodwill and benevolence."

"I will spread the word of Senator Amidala's goodwill and benevolence."

"You will make up for this misunderstanding by comping our desserts."

"I will make up for this misunderstanding by comping our desserts."

"An Alderaanian custard and fruit medley for the Senator and...," he looked over to his mother with a mischievous glint in his eye, "and another ale, your strongest, complimentary of course, for the gentleman here," gesturing to his step-father.

Shmi was not happy.

"Ani!"

* * *

"Be mindful of your thoughts Ani, they betray you. You're nervous."

"I haven't seen him in nine years, Padmé. To think, I almost pledged my life to that man."

She looked to him with concern. They sat alone in the transport, awaiting their soon to be bodyguard on a landing platform by the Jedi Temple. "Are you worried about any semblance of a bond you may have formed?" While Anakin's natural abilities with the Force made him a quick study for virtually everything she taught him, the one area he struggled with was shielding. To not be himself, to not broadcast his essence to the world without filter went against his entire being. In a rare moment of frustration, she had even considered withholding sex as a punishment, but decided quickly against it, since she didn't want to punish herself as well. Eventually he learned, but this would be his biggest test yet.

"No. I don't think so. I just...I just wonder how he would think of me."

"Don't let the judgment of the Jedi bother you, Anakin. Obi-Wan is a Jedi. He will have trained himself to not have taken your rejection personally. You only knew him briefly, after all, and whatever bond he shared with you had more to do with the promise he made to Qui-Gon."

"I understand. Still, if you could...," he faltered, not wanting to actually ask her, but she understood.

"I'll be extra wary of my shielding, just in case." She looked at the young boy sympathetically. Padmé had subjected him to many rigorous trials by now, but this one was different. Nothing meant more to Anakin than trust in the people he cared about, and nothing hurt the boy more than asking him to betray those trusts (though were she a normal Sith, that trial would already have been repeated many times over by now) and despite however brief his relationship had been with Qui-Gon's former apprentice, it did exist at one point.

"This won't be easy Anakin, but if we can bear this through, you will have completed your training."

Anakin took a deep breath. While he knew that it would matter not, that he and Padmé were bound to each other by the Force itself for the rest of their lives, this would still be the definitive end of one stage of their relationship, a time that he was not fully ready to let go of yet. He sensed that she could feel his apprehension, so he could only joke. "Can I still call you 'master' when we're role playing?"

* * *

"Well hello there." They both left the ship to greet the young Jedi Knight, exchanging customary bows. "Senator Amidala, it's been far too long."

"Master Kenobi." They hugged each other briefly, and Obi-Wan turned his attention to the boy who would have been his Padawan. "Naboo still owes you a debt of gratitude."

"Anakin Skywalker," he said, looking the young man over, studying him almost as if assessing a potential threat. "You've grown."

"So have you, Master," Anakin said reflexively. He paused, reconsidering his words. "More scruffy, I mean."

Indeed, the young knight sported a clean, shortly cropped beard to go along with his neatly groomed coif of hair reaching down to his neck.

"Oh Anakin, always the free spirit."

"So tell me Knight Kenobi," Anakin started politely as they boarded the ship.

"Obi-Wan's fine."

"Obi-Wan then. How many adventures have I missed out on over the years."

"Quite a few, actually. Ragoon IV was...not a good time. I could've used an extra hand there. And Vanqor, there were this nest of gundarks..."

He trailed off, not apparently wanting to relive the ordeal. Padmé laughed, naturally, as if around a friend. "Sounds like you didn't need Anakin's help to keep your life interesting."

Obi-Wan sat back in his seat, watching in fascination as the young couple in front of him adjusted the knobs and machinery of the ship, the two of the acting wordlessly as one, almost as if they were a smooth running machine rather than human, though machines never looked at each other the way these two did.

"It seems Anakin had the right idea," Obi-Wan commented once they were in hyperspace. "I wonder if I should have taken the same path, to take the life of a noble, find myself a Naboo woman."

"It's not too late, master Jedi," Padmé shot back with a grin. "My mother has a friend whose husband just passed away. I can tell Jodé that you're available."

"Your mother? Surely you don't think I'm that old, milady!"

"No," Anakin said, more at ease now than before. He looked over lovingly at his wife. "But as you can see, I've managed to teach stiff old Amidala how to have a sense of humor now and then."

"I'm may be a Jedi," Obi-Wan remarked as Padmé shot a sharp look at her husband, her mouth open in exaggerated shock, "but even I know better to call any woman old. Especially your wife."

"Jokes about age leads to anger. Anger leads to the Dark Side," Anakin pressed. "Is that right, Obi-Wan?"

"Close enough." He was enjoying this display, the boy bringing out a side of the former Queen and Senator that few ever saw.

Anakin reached a hand over to his wife's in a conciliatory manner. "I like her angry." She still looked like she was fuming, but Obi-Wan could sense she was putting up a front.

"Just be glad she's not Force sensitive, young Skywalker, or you'd really be in trouble."

"Oh, I know."


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as the door closed to their room, Anakin found himself flung through the air and onto their bed. He was immobilized, and while he could fight back, he didn't want to. There was no lie, after all. He did like it when Darth Mirayya was angry, when she had that extra spark in her eye, literal spark.

"Vader," she hissed, leaping onto her bed like a wild nexu. She straddled him over his chest and placed both hands firmly onto his neck. While she could easily choke him through the Force, she still preferred the physical contact to his smooth skin. "You're treading on thin ice right now."

"I'm from Tatooine," Anakin spat back defiantly, the grin never leaving his face. "I don't understand this ice you speak of."

She slapped him across the cheek, hard enough so he would feel it, but not so hard to actually hurt him.

"You understand the stakes, don't you? If the Jedi find us out now..."

"You think Obi-Wan would believe an actual Sith dare joke around about the Dark Side with a Jedi," Anakin gasped out. She wasn't trying to choke him seriously, but he was having trouble breathing nevertheless. "This is my trial, isn't it? And if anything I think we allayed his suspicions."

He felt her fingers relax around his neck. It felt nice now, so he reached up and grabbed his Sith wife's forearms, massaging them gently so that she would keep her hands on him. "And my shielding was superb, wasn't it."

"You were good," Padmé relented. She could not stay mad at him. This was what she had signed up for, after all, engaging with someone so young. Anakin was at the age now where he was probing, pushing his boundaries, whether with her and his training, or on a mission such as this. It was the only way he would learn, on the path to becoming a master himself. "I did little out there. Your own shielding was enough to hide both of us from a seasoned Jedi. But this was a controlled situation...the real test comes if we are under duress."

"I know," Anakin said with a tiny whiff of impatience. While he appreciated everything Padmé taught him, right now, in the positions they were in, he would have preferred her to finish the lesson and commence his 'punishment' instead.

Clearly Padmé felt the same way, as Anakin felt her start to grind herself against his chest. "Just...try not to slip up about Kamino."

One of the tidbits of information they had found from Palpatine's files was how he had manipulated a Master Sifo-Dyas into creating a giant clone army for the Republic. Sidious had grand plans for this army, but with him dead, the cloners were still continuing their work in ignorance to all but the two Siths, the original Jedi who commissioned it, and whomever he decided to confide in. It did not bring comfort to Padmé that Dooku was among Sifo-Dyas's closest friends.

"Don't you worry, old maid. I know what I'm doing." Suddenly he felt himself immobilized once more as Padmé fingers tightened around his neck again.

"So I'm old," Padmé whispered, shifting her body so that she was practically sitting on his neck, "but I'm no maid...Skywalker."

"Prove it," he barely was able to gasp out.

* * *

Obi-Wan was already up in the cockpit and meditating when he saw his two charges enter. Neither one seemed all too rested, and he swore he saw light bruising on the younger man's neck.

"Rough night," he asked, eyebrows raised skeptically at their state. He had sensed great turmoil from within the ship the previous night, and expected that the Senator would have tightened the leash on her husband today. But not literally.

"Oh, the usual," Anakin quipped, brushing away the odd glares from the Jedi as he resumed monitoring the controls.

"So you insult your very powerful senator of a wife on the regular? Got it."

"We don't all get to travel the galaxy, master Jedi," Padmé said in a conciliatory manner. "Ani and I don't always get the best sleep on a ship."

"Yeah," Anakin added, "she moves around in her sleep like a crazy sith lady."

"Hffmm. Bet it still beats sleeping on a bed of rocks and bugs."

"Was this before or after the gundarks, Obi-Wan," Anakin asked, and Obi-Wan wondered about the boldness of the young man, so quick to be familiar with a stranger.

"Both." Not for the first or last time he wondered how the boy would have fared as a Jedi. His bravery and courage was unquestioned and would have served as great assets for the order, but there was now a lack of reverence in the young man that he did not recall from nine years ago. Clearly, his close relationship with a queen from a young age had emboldened him in contrast to his humbler roots, but Obi-Wan had a feeling that this aspect of Anakin's personality was integral to him regardless of upbringing. So he would have tried his patience as a Padawan, Obi-Wan mused, whether mouthing off in front of other masters, or throwing a wrench in his more delicate diplomatic missions. Of this was one. "Let's just hope that this mission will be the quick and comfortable kind. We're staying in the Governor's palace, after all."

"With the considerable opposition I've had on a bill that would seem innocuous to most, I doubt that will be the case." Padmé appeared pensive for a moment. "And your mandate does include investigation, does it not? Into the domestic situation on the planet?"

She was clearly leading him somewhere, Obi-Wan realized. A small part of his brain told him that observation of these two would be crucial to his mission as well, thought he could not guess as to why. "I will certainly keep my ears open, but my mandate allows me to investigate, not intervene. From what I hear, the conflict is pretty standard, is it not? A small scale civil war, the local crime lords revolting now that their lust has moved from credits to power?"

"That is correct, master Jedi," Padmé said in a tone that clearly indicated he was wrong and that she knew better. "The rebels are slavers, from what I hear. My bill will give the Governor more authority to fight them on account of that, in addition to more resources from the Republic and the Jedi. So why would he oppose the prospect of additional resources?"

"You think the Governor has something to hide?"

"I think the negotiations will drag on long enough for you to conduct a thorough investigation."

Obi-Wan could have swore that she winked as she spoke. Their shared past had taught him not to underestimate this young Senator and former queen and that, while her motivations were pure enough, she was not above using deception and subterfuge to get her way. But what was the role of her very young husband? On the surface they seemed a typical young couple in love, except there was nothing typical about them. Amidala was already a rising star in Coruscant, and Obi-Wan sensed that her role in the galaxy, her ambitions, eclipsed her current position as a mere senator. And Anakin...a former slave, the greatest midi-chlorian count in recorded history, a vast reservoir of potential completely untapped, potential to have rivaled even Master Yoda as a Jedi, yet here he sat, just another common teenager, though with a rather uncommon wife. Despite their most unusual backgrounds and courtships, they seemed every bit the normal couple, yet that elusive, nagging sense that there was something off about the picture in front of him could not escape Obi-Wan.

Qui-Gon had thought him the Chosen One, a prophesied being who would slay the Sith. Yet wasn't Obi-Wan the one who killed Darth Maul? And while he heard the high council still debated whether Maul had been the master or apprentice, and identity and whereabouts of the other elusive Sith out there, Obi-Wan, even though he would admit he was no master Yoda or Windu, could feel that the Force was so much cleaner, clearer since that fateful day on Naboo. Siri Tachi had the oddest hypothesis of all, that maybe the Sith master had been on the droid control ship, and that young Anakin had unwittingly killed him, thus fulfilling the prophecy. Dooku, his grand-master, seemed to have ideas as well, though he never voiced them outright to Obi-Wan aside from cryptic comments about looking deeper into the Trade Federation crisis, and how the Jedi still did not grasp the full picture from the events of nine years ago.

It was apparently not long after they landed that Amidala was correct about Rylothian intentions. The Governor, Lune Nikmas, was unlike other powerful twi'leks in that he was exceedingly gaunt, but Obi-Wan sensed from him more evasiveness than the average politician. The welcoming committee took up most of their time the first day in elaborate ceremonies, leaving little time for anything of substance. Where the young Senator did try to broach the subject of the slave bill, the Governor and his councilors were quick to change the subject, their disingenuousness apparent even to Anakin, who frowned in disapproval the entire time. Their bedquarters in the governor's palace were grand, and despite her reputation as a workaholic, Padmé quickly rushed her husband to bed that evening.

In another life, Obi-Wan thought, his mind returning against his substantial willpower to those months he had spent on Mandalore, to the young, frightened, courageous Duchess who, despite her youth, was already willing to die for her beliefs. And he for her, if only she would ask. But she never did, and though Obi-Wan knew that he could sense the truth of her feelings for him, reciprocated, he had long banished them to the recesses of his mind. Until now, as he watched the carelessness of the young lovers he kept watch over, and how despite the very scandalous aspects of their marriage (after all, even he had heard about the Queen robbing the cradle at the time, from watching a holotabloid on a distant outer rim planet), Padmé Amidala had been able to survive and thrive, not just balancing, but combining her duty along with her personal life. If it were possible for her, then it would've been possible for Satine as well. But then where would that have left Qui-Gon? Who would have killed the Sith? Not that he would put a disproportionate weight on his own abilities, especially on his younger self, but the odds were greatly stacked against them. Had he still been sent, could Qui-Gon have escaped Naboo with the Queen alone? And if he couldn't have, then Amidala would be a hostage at best, and Anakin a slave, and all this happiness between them now wisps of stardust.

Obi-Wan Kenobi rarely allowed himself the luxury of distraction, but whenever it did occur, it seemed to be at the worst of times. A tingling feeling in the Force warned him to attention, but not before a massive blast shook the walls of the palace, its epicenter in the suite next to his. By the time he ran in, it was too late. Half the room was blown away, the missing walls exposing the charred remains of the bed to the blistering winds from outside.


	4. Chapter 4

He felt the wind rush through his hair, he felt the grip of Padmé's small but deadly hands firmly against his torso, he felt in his hands the controls of the speeder, every movement, every motion subject to his whims, and it was in moments like these that he felt he was truly in heaven. The dark canyons of the nightlands flew by below them, the moonlight sharpening the edge of every cliff and ledge. Here, lost to the night, away from all their restrictions, they were free. Padmé, a Sith master, his avenging angel, bringing the cruel hand of justice to those who deserved it. And he...well, he would be whatever she wanted him to be.

Of course Padmé had a plan. The bounty hunter assumed the party that hired him was just one of Ryloth's many insurgent cells, the assignment to bomb the room of a Republic senator. Her instructions had been precise, the bounty hunter did well, with Padmé subtly guiding the bomb from the bounty hunter's plant to its final location, no one was truly harmed besides a few cleaning droids and the bank accounts of the government, one that Padmé assumed was corrupt anyhow, so she cared little for their expense. The bombing gave them time to flee, to see the planet away from the watchful eyes of their protection, and she had all their next steps planned out.

"Where do we go now," he asked once he found a spare speeder.

"Where do you think the slavers are," she whispered into his ear.

He thought for a few moments. "Where they can gather the most slaves. Where the war is."

Of course the Governor downplayed the war to representatives of the Republic. It was local in nature, and mostly contained to a few specific sectors, he claimed. Padmé knew better to trust him, and her contacts told her otherwise, that the insurgents were steadily gaining ground through the nightlands, the half of the planet that never saw the light of their sun. Most of it was empty ground, of course, but they had taken control of the few cities on the harsher half of the planet and, just as significantly, controlled most of the mines as well as the supply routes fueling the planet's industry on the other side.

Not satisfied with occupation with one half of the planet, the insurgents were moving to broach the dawn zone, the dividing line where the skies were permanently split between light and dark. The cliff city of Rajar, the hub of the dawnlands where half a dozen trade routes converged through a rare break in both terrain and atmospheric winds, was the obvious hinge point of the upcoming battle, and it was here that Padmé decided they would begin their quest for answers.

"We've got company," Anakin said. They both felt it, and soon enough, the display panel warned them of five ships approaching them from the opposite direction.

"Unidentified ship, identify yourself," a scaly voice ordered over the comm.

"We represent the Republic and come in peace," Padmé said calmly. The response was curt.

"Turn around and leave the quadrant. This is your first and last warning."

Anakin shrugged as Padmé unlatched a small contraption tied over her back. "Well, we tried."

She took the first shots, firing two guided rockets that took down two of the incoming ships before they even knew what hit them. They had finally stopped on Kamino after destroying Jabba's palace, where they had killed the bounty hunter, Fett, whom Sifo-Dyas had chosen to be the clone template. The Mandalorian left a treasure trove of weapons in his quarters, as well as a young child. The kid they mind-wiped and sent off to an orphanage on Corellia, and the weapons Anakin had further tinkered with until they were perfect for their purposes.

"Hang on," Anakin yelled back as he spun their speeder to dodge the enemy fire. More backup ships flew onto their radar, and Padmé shot true at them even as she clung on for her life hanging upside down. They breezed past several ships, who turned abruptly into pursuit. Anakin slammed suddenly on the brakes and jammed the propellers, plunging hundreds of feet down as one of the enemy ships swerved and crashed into one of its compatriots.

"Fuck!" Padmé rarely lost her composure, but she could not tolerate her own failure in the heat of battle. Several of her shots missed, missiles flying harmlessly into the canyon walls as they entered the narrow ravine before they had a chance to pivot back to their targets. She felt Anakin swerve the speeder more violently, left to right to left to right, daring their pursuers to follow, as she slung her rocket launcher, now empty, back over her shoulder. Without a pause, she closed her eyes, concentrating on the fast moving battle around her, and Force pushed several of the ships into the cliffs. With only one ship left, Anakin relaxed his evasive maneuvers, and Padmé squeezed her hand together, crushing even from a distance the ship and its pilot alike.

"The computer traced the origin of those ships to a small factory outside the city," Anakin said. "I'll be on the lookout for more bogeys."

"It's odd," Padmé said. "I've seen no reports of rebel forces in Rajar yet."

"Wonder if that was a vanguard. Those definitely weren't the governor's ships."

"Not officially at least."

They flew low to the ground on the approach to a large factory that, like many of the buildings and cities on Ryloth, was built into the sandstone cliffs. The structure looked like it had been abandoned for years, yet there was a flurry of activity within its confines, and they both sensed fear, panic, and sadness emanating from the building.

"Slavers," Padmé whispered after they docked their speeder on a small cliff above. There was a frenzy of activity below, as several slavers rushed a few dozen captives onto a small transport.

"They must be worried their friends haven't returned yet." Anakin pulled out a small blaster. They were operating on Republic grounds here, so they couldn't reveal their abilities in the Force unless there were guaranteed to be no living witnesses. "Let's give them a taste of that medicine."

They jumped down onto the platform and started firing on the slavers, advancing relentlessly. The few remaining slavers panicked and started running for their transport, not even bothering to fire back. None of them even made it close to the ramp, and soon it was just the two of them and about thirty twi'lek would be slaves, mostly younger females, along with a few children. Anakin turned his attention to a lone female standing by the dock, a datapad in her hand. She looked maybe Padmé's age, maybe a little younger, but she was older than most of the others gathered.

"You," Anakin said sternly, blaster raised, "you were processing them."

"I...I was...," the young woman stammered. A young male twi'lek jumped out of the ship fearlessly, and both turned their blasters on him, with only his panicked look of concern for the other woman stopping them.

"Please," he yelled out. "We're not your enemies. Kara's a slave too."

Anakin looked over at Padmé, who nodded. The young twi'lek seemed sincere enough. "Who's onboard the ship," she asked.

"Only a few captives, sir. They lost contact with the rest of the party and were in a rush to leave."

"We killed the rest of their party," Anakin said darkly, as he heard hushed whispers among the rest of the captives, and felt a sense of hope rise echo through the empty room.

"We weren't...," the woman called Kara started, but Anakin quieted her with a hush.

"I understand," he said. As a former slave himself, he knew that oftentimes they had little choice but to follow their owners' orders, no matter how despicable. The alternative wasn't death sometimes, but torture of not just themselves, but their families and friends were they captive as well. "Who do you belong to?"

"Koen," Kara said.

"You're a rebel then," Padmé asked. Koen I'llirio belonged to one of the chief clans backing the rebellion.

"My name is Wipper. Some of those you killed were commandos, scouting out the city's defenses. Others were pirates hired by the clans to reap the city for potential...prisoners."

"A raiding party," inquired Padmé.

Wipper nodded. "They want to collect their goods before they're damaged by the battle."

"Are you going to turn us into the Governor's guard," Kara asked fearfully.

"No," Anakin said. "We represent the Republic, and as of now, the Republic has not chosen to take a side in this conflict. Besides, you were slaves. You had no choice."

"That doesn't matter to the regime here," Kara replied. "Me...maybe they'll mind me useful...but Wipper...they might just see him as another combatant and..."

"We won't turn you in," Padmé said gently, stepping up and putting her hand reassuringly on Kara's forearm. "Our first priority is returning these...these kids back to where they belong. Were they taken from Rajar?"

"Some of them won't have any homes to return to," Wipper said, his eyes shameful at what his masters had done.

"As long as the city can provide food and shelter, that will be good enough for now." Padmé gestured towards the captives for them to board the transport. Some still looked at them with distrust, but with little other choice, they obeyed.

"We'll return to the capital to see if the Governor can provide any additional aid. That should give you time to escape."

"Yes," Kara said, but her downturned eyes indicated that she did not believe her words. She looked back at the two Sith, eyes hopeful and fearful at the same time. "What should we call you by?"

They looked at each other. Neither had revealed any Force abilities to anyone here, but still it didn't hurt to be safe.

"Leia Thule," Padmé said. "And my husband, Luke."

* * *

"They're shipped to various corners of the galaxy after the bids come in."  Kara talked as Anakin ran the scanner over her body in the waiting room of the local mayor's office. "I try to make sure they're comfortable while they wait...but..."

"It's okay.  There's nothing more you could do."  Anakin could feel her exude guilt, even though she deserved to feel none. "You had no choice."

"There's always a choice," she insisted.  "I'm good at organizing things.  They saw that, and they decided to use me that way rather than...other kinds of slavery.  But I could have chosen death. Should have."

"Then you wouldn't be here today," Anakin said.  "Now you can help others with your skills."

"I'm not sure if there's much I can do in a war zone.  Wipper's a fighter though.  He's always been, ever since they took him as a youngling."

"You care for him," Anakin asked.

"He's a friend," Kara said thoughtfully.  "Probably the only friend I have."

"He's in love with you, you know." The chip scanner beeped as it passed over the back of her left shoulder.

"He's just a child," Kara protested mildly. 

"He's about my age, and I've been with...Leia, for many years now."

"Maybe it's different with you core people. How can you be so sure?" She seemed dismissive, Anakin thought, yet intrigued by the revelation. As a slave, she had obviously not bothered to consider such trifling things such as romance.

Anakin closed his eyes and hovered the palm of his hand above the spot where the scanner told him the inhibitor chip would be. He could see it in his mind, every circuit, ever wire, every groove along its small surface. It was a standard issue, one they had encountered hundreds of times before, and with a delicate movement of his fingers, he deactivated it with the Force. Padmé was much better at this, but it was his custom scanner that ensured that they never failed to locate the inhibitor chips.

"You're free now," Anakin said matter-of-factly, as if the news wasn't life changing for the woman. "If you ever get to the medcenter, you can tell them the chip is here...," he pointed to the spot on her upper back. "I'd remove it now but we don't have the tools."

Kara's eyes widened in disbelief. "How...how did you do it?"

"The scanner," Anakin lied. "It remotes in and jams the frequency until it breaks." He rose, studying the painted gray walls of the small waiting room in the mayor's office. Padmé and Wipper were out in the city, repatriating the captives. "I met her when I was nine," he said, resuming their previous topic. "I was a slave too, out in the Outer Rim."

"This is personal for you," Kara said in realization.

"For both of us. Leia was part of the party that freed me. She took me in, freed my mother, gave me a place to live...an education. I love her, she is my life." He turned and for the first time the twi'lek woman felt the sheer intensity of her savior's blue eyes, "and I see the same longing in his eyes. He worships you...just like I worshiped her...before our love was requited."

"There's still a war going on," Kara said, trying to dismiss the young man's suggestions. "This isn't the time for love."

"When else then, when you stand to lose at any time everything you care about?"

Just then, the lobby door burst open, and the subject of their conversation ran eagerly in.

"Kara! I'm free now! She freed me!" Without reservation, he ran in to hug his friend and fellow former slave.

She looked at warily Anakin as they hugged. What would have been an innocent action just minutes before suddenly had new meaning in her eyes. "Me too, Wipper. Me too."

They were soon followed by Padmé and another young male twi'lek, this one wearing much more officious robes compared to the rags that barely passed for clothes on the two now former slaves. The man walked up to Anakin, taking his hand to shake it.

"You must be Luke Thule. I met your wife out in the old town. Thank you for everything you've both done for our city."

"Just doing our jobs," Anakin said demurely. He sensed an air of authority around this man, despite his age. "You must be the mayor?"

He nodded warmly. "Paan Thothlis."

Anakin sensed a sudden pang of fear coming from Kara and Wipper.

"Of Clan Thothlis," Padmé asked, understanding instantly the concerns of her new friends. Clan Thothlis was one of the most powerful clans on the planet, second only to the Governor's.

"Don't worry," Paan said, looking knowingly at the two. "I haven't been in contact with my family for almost half my life now. Something of a pariah, I guess."

"These two were innocents," Anakin pressed. "They had no choice in who they were working for."

"I understand completely," Paan tried to assure them, but Kara's eyes still looked to Anakin's in fear, wondering if she could trust the mayor. "I'd say that Rajar remains a safe haven for all who don't mean us harm...but I don't know how much longer we'll be safe for anyone."

"Do you think an attack is imminent, Mayer Thothlis?"

"Please, call me Paan." The twi'lek frowned at the young woman. "We have a day, maybe. Two days at the most. They're always preceded by raids like the one you encountered. Any time longer than that...our supply routes have been blocked in every direction. If they don't attack us, then we starve. All of us."

"If your Clan is so powerful," Anakin asked, puzzled, "why can't they help you?"

"My father is Councilor Yaak." Everyone in the room gasped. Yaak Thothlis was the head of his Clan, and one of the most powerful figures on the planet whom Anakin vaguely recalled meeting in the bevvy of handshakes from earlier that day. "I am his eldest son. I disclaimed my family, and they disowned me. On Ryloth, such actions are final."

"So? Your family will let this city burn just for some petty vendetta?" Anakin tried to calm his voice, be the diplomat Padmé told him he had to be for their grand plan to take shape, but he felt the anger burning inside him. Was this man lying to him? No, he didn't think so. Anakin wasn't mad at the mayor, he was mad at everything else. At the pirates, the slavers, the sight of all the captured girls. The sad, resigned eyes of Kara, which had already endured a life of agony, and how strikingly similar they were to someone else's long ago.

"I can tell you care," the mayor said sympathetically. "You're from offworld, but you care. That's more than most of them here can say. The ruling clans all come from the brightlands, so that's all they're concerned with. The nightlands they've already let the rebels lay waste to, and what little forces they have left in the guard not already protecting the core clan cities, they're fighting to reclaim the mine routes. For cities like this stuck in the middle...I wish I could say I'd fight, but we have trouble enough scavenging the wasted lands for food and scraps."

"We won't let that happen, Paan," Padmé said, and Anakin recognized the steely, determined look in her eyes when she set her mind on something. "An...Luke and I will return to the Bruk'ira, and we'll get help."

"You won't find a sympathetic ear back in the capital. My name won't help either. I've already sent intermediaries, at the expense of tradition and my own pride. They got nowhere."

Anakin couldn't help but wonder at the psyche of the man. He was worn, broken even more than slaves he had known on Tatooine. How could he give up so easily, he wondered.

 _Because not all of them have our powers_ , Padmé's voice spoke back to him. "We'll figure something out," she said out loud. "The Republic will not let your people down. We've ignored the cries for help on Ryloth for too long."

Anakin walked over to the Kara and Wipper, who had stayed silent through the entire conversation. Slaves didn't interrupt and disrupt the discourse of their betters, he knew too well. "You'll be safer here than in Bruk'ira. We will return, I promise. All this will not have been in vain."

"I believe you," Wipper said, his eyes defiant, his spirit ecstatic having finally broken free of his bonds. "I don't know why, but I do. You've come to save us, but know that when you return, I'm willing to fight for you." He looked around the room, at the mayor, at Kara, her aura showing much less confidence than her younger friend, yet Wipper asserted again, his lekkus quivering in excitement, "we will all fight for you."


	5. Chapter 5

"So you hid in a cave, huh?"

"It was the closest place we could find," Anakin defended. It was clear to him that Obi-Wan was skeptical over the story they concocted for the governor, that when the bomb struck, they managed to jump out of the window and land on a trash transport, from which they escaped the city during the night.

"The Anakin that blew up the Trade Federation ship wouldn't have hidden in a cave."

"This Anakin has a wife he has to protect now," Anakin said, looking over at Padmé with his trademark smirk. "A very weak, frail, helpless wife."

"Still, a cave," Obi-Wan shook his head in exasperation. "I don't know what the two of you would do in a cave all night." A horrified look dawned on his face. "Actually, pretend I never said that."

"It was a valuable side trip nevertheless," the senator said evasively. "There were other refugees in the cave as well, and now we have a better picture of the civil war, and its horrible costs."

"And yet the Governor does nothing," Anakin said, his temper rising. "He would refuse even a senator."

"A senator with not a semblance of authority on Ryloth," Obi-Wan said, trying to placate the young man. This was the real Anakin, impetuous, thirsting for action, not content to sit idly by, ever. The cave story was clearly a lie...Obi-Wan knew it, and he knew they knew. They were up to something, angling towards, as they had been all trip, some ulterior motive he could not see. "This is no longer Naboo, Senator Amidala, and you are no longer a Queen."

"You don't need to lecture me on protocol, master Jedi. You have your mission, we have ours." Though her stated mission was progressing slowly, as there had been little talks their second day on planet due to the supposed terrorist attack. She instead requested assistance for Rajar, the Governor denied it, politely but firmly, and then she requested the talks be postponed for a day. They had, after all, spend the night sleepless and scared in a cave outside the city, and needed to catch up on sleep. "However," she looked slyly at Anakin, modulating her voice to sound as meek as possible, "I don't feel safe here in Bruk'ira, Ani. I think we need to find shelter elsewhere for the night."

"Then, dear wife, I will accompany you to wherever you need to go."

"Now listen here," Obi-Wan said, his frustration rising despite all of his years of training. He felt like he was dealing at once with two spoiled children, yet two wily, crafty...well, something between villains and politicians. "Governor Nikmas will be very upset if you refuse his hospitality again, and I can't very well protect you if you're off playing hide-and-seek."

"Who says we're hiding from you," Padmé said playfully.

* * *

Obi-Wan sulked as he followed his charges to the supply depot. Though the sun still shone in the brightlands, artificial satellites covered the city during the designated night hours, and they all had the cover of relative darkness as they snuck into a room filled with gigantic transport vehicles.

"What you are doing is patently illegal. You are risking your whole career..."

Padmé didn't look up from her datapad as she spoke. "You can report us to the Senate once we return to Coruscant, but for now, you are still in charge of our safety." She pointed towards several transports in the back corner. "The files show these ones going to the militias in the northern sectors. They were just stocked, so they will not be in immediate need of additional supplies."

Seeing both of them run towards the vehicles in question, Obi-Wan shook his head and continued after them. He had a feeling that were he to somehow survive these two, he would have a hell of a council meeting to answer for. Their motives were pure, of course, they wanted to help, but the Jedi did not stand for vigilantism, and neither did Supreme Chancellor Antilles.

"We'll take these two," Anakin said, pointing at the transports Padmé had singled out. "Obi-Wan, you can take that one."

"No," he said, crossing his arms. "I will not actively engage in a brazen theft of a sovereign system's properties."

"Fine," Padmé said. "You'll just passively witness it and allow innocents to starve for the sake of your own conscience."

"This is not about conscience, my..."

All three of them felt the dark presence immediately, though the two siths knew well enough not to react before the Jedi. They heard eerie hum of a lightsaber from the warehouse entrance, and saw a small, sleek woman behind the green blade. Obi-Wan squinted his eyes in disbelief.

"Asajj?" He could barely recognize any trace of master Narec's young Padawan. "I thought you were dead."

The twisted eyes of the woman ignored him, turning instead towards his companions. "Senator Amidala, it seems you are too eager to betray the hospitality of my employers. Who would have thought the rebel filth would have infiltrated even the highest levels of the Republic."

Obi-Wan stepped out protectively in front of the two. "Now Asajj, I can assure you they are not rebels."

"Stay out of this Jedi," she hissed at him. "If you do not stand with Ryloth, then you stand against all of us. You will not be the first to fall upon my blade."

"We stand for Ryloth," Padmé protested, "but we stand for its people, not their short sighted rulers."

"I sense the Dark Side in you, young Ventress. I do not condone the Senator's actions..."

The dark acolyte flew through the air until she was standing in front of them, blocking any escape.

"Then hand them over, Jedi."

Obi-Wan lit his blade. "I will not let you harm them."

"Then die." She sprung into action, attacking the older Jedi with quick, vicious cuts. He parried off every one of them with ease, yet seemingly was willingly letting the girl advance on them.

 _He's holding back_ , Padmé said to Anakin through their bond.  _He sees her as a misguided child, and doesn't want to hurt her._

 _Let's force his hand then._  Pulling out their blasters, they rolled to either side of the duel and using the Force, guided their shots expertly to places where the Ventress woman could least afford to deflect, but despite the many opportunities he had to strike a killing blow, Obi-Wan held back. Anakin increased the pace of his shots even as he sensed his wife subtly manipulate the Force around Ventress, and suddenly the rogue Jedi found her movements sluggish, her power and her swings of the blade weakened. Sensing something was wrong, she turned angrily at Obi-Wan, thinking he was wielding some Jedi power she did not know of.

"This isn't over," Ventress screamed, and with a magnificent leap backwards, jumped onto the roof of a transport and ran back towards the entrance. "You won't escape this treachery."

Still marveling at what happened, and how his mission had somehow been so complicated so quickly, Obi-Wan muttered "I have a bad feeling about this." He looked over at the Senator and Anakin, who both seemed a bit too eager to pull out their guns. "They've caught us red-handed. I sense this will be the end of your negotiations, Senator, and that will be the least of all our concerns."

Surprisingly, the senator shrugged, not at all concerned about the failure of their diplomacy. "Well, if we're already screwed, we may as well bring these supplies to the helpless before they put us all in front of the firing squad." Without another moment of pause, they each jumped into the cockpit of a transport.

"You riding shotgun, Obi-Wan," Anakin called out as his freighter's engine came to life, "or you going to put those famous Jedi piloting skills to good use?"

Obi-Wan sighed, loudly for dramatic effect. "Somehow I think you're going to be the death of me. Both of you."

* * *

The city buzzed with hope, and despite all his misgivings, as he watched the lines of twi'leks, families, children waiting for their share of much needed rations, Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel grateful for the rogue actions the senator and Anakin had undertaken. The Jedi in him said this was all for naught when the war finally comes for Rajar, but then what was the harm in nourishment for the innocent, even if to ameliorate their suffering for a day or two. The injustice of the local government was obvious to him, but it was not the job of the Jedi to right every local wrong committed. But whose role was it then? Master Yoda would say the Force wills what it wills, that a balance will eventually settle. Yet, as he watched the grateful residents of Rajar receive their first ration of hope for a long time, he wondered whether master Yoda was right after all, and this scene before him was indeed the will of the Force.

 _He will bring balance to the Force_ , his old master's words rang through his head. Words long dismissed by the council, by himself, as misguided...wrong altogether. But as he watched the boy now, handing out the supplies with a smile on his face, goodwill ringing through the Force, he wondered.

"Words cannot thank me for all that you have done for us," Paan said. "Luke and Leia Thule, Rajar has your eternal gratitude, as do I."

Obi-Wan abruptly turned his attention to Amidala, who stiffened at the mention of the name she had given them, her brown eyes pleading with him to not say anything. "Luke and Leia Thule..."

"They saved all of us," Kara said. Her eyes looked weary. Even with all that she had been through, she had insisted on asking the mayor on what she could do to help all of the recent captives, and there had been no shortage of tasks.

"They certainly did," Obi-Wan remarked, returning his attention to the couple. "Luke and Leia Thule...you know, Luke and Leia Thule, I've never thought to tell you what lovely names they are. Just flows off the tongue like...like the finest Corellian brandy...doesn't it. Luke and Leia Thule."

"Sounds a lot better than Obi-Wan Kenobi," Anakin said, almost mockingly.

"Your friend is a bit odd," Wipper whispered next to him. "Does he always talk to you like that?"

"He's a Jedi," Anakin said, rolling his eyes. "But I think he is odd, even for them."

"I heard that."

He felt the approach of Paan Thothlis.

"Master Jedi, you say you cannot intervene in this war."

"I'm afraid I've already overstepped the bounds of my mandate, milord."

"If I know my father, the governor's guard will figure out what transpired. They will come after you, and I cannot protect you."

"Is that a bad thing," Padmé asked to the mayor's puzzlement. "The governor's army marching into Rajar...days, even hours, before a rebel attack."

"You told me you disabled the depot's alarms," Obi-Wan exclaimed. Yet again, he had underestimated her, just like before when she appeared a mere handmaiden. But Senator Amidala was clearly clever, yet reckless. And ruthless, a small voice echoed inside his head. "You left them on purpose. You wanted them to discover us."

"I trusted in my Jedi protector," the Senator said. Both she and Anakin grinned brilliantly, clearly elated at having outsmarted a Jedi. Padmé turned to the young mayor. "You do not need to worry about us, Paan. We will gladly turn ourselves in."

Obi-Wan frowned. Clearly the two were underestimating the capabilities of a dark Jedi. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said, speaking slowly so as to choose his words carefully. "The woman Ventress we encountered used to be a Jedi. I believe she is under the sway of the dark side, and her actions may be...unpredictable."

All the twi'lek faces reacted in horror, from the mayor to Kara and Wipper.

"This woman you speak of...she is the governor's enforcer," Kara whispered. "A shadow. A killer."

"Ryloth does not often observe the laws and conduct of the Republic," Paan cautioned, "especially not in the middle of a war. My brother Juul is officially in command, but I believe this Ventress is one they hired, and she's pulling the strings. Her reputation is as ruthless as my family. Even more so."

"Would she care more about bringing in three rogue operatives than winning a war," Anakin asked.

"You embarrassed her. Your actions embarrassed my family, the governor, and all the ruling clans. Trust me...they will do whatever it takes to save face, and they do not forget a grudge."

"Forgive me for asking, lord mayor, but do you speak of this with firsthand knowledge."

Paan hesitated before the penetrating blue eyes of the Jedi before deciding that he had nothing to lose, and nothing to hide, whether it be from a Jedi, dignitaries of the Republic, or two former slaves.

"I've always found the ways of my clan abhorrent. Even as a child, I cared little for the politics, the greed, the," he looked over at Kara and Wipper, "the slavery. I spoke my mind, and my father hated me, but there was nothing he could do. I was his firstborn son, and sometimes I swore that he would kill me before I inherited his position. So I left, when I was sixteen standard years. Ran away. I did little odd jobs here and there. I earned enough, and I studied. I went to peaceful worlds like Alderaan and Mandalore, because I wanted to learn their ways. But...those worlds were too peaceful. They were disconnected from reality, from the ugly truths I grew up with. They preached, but they did not understand true suffering. Eventually, I realized that if I were to make a difference, it had to be back on Ryloth. But I would change things in my own way. I found Rajar, but...I think Rajar found me as well. I wanted to help...but," he looked down in shame, "I didn't know that I had already condemned our people here, our entire civilization."

"You," Anakin asked in disbelief. The self-loathing he felt out of this young politician startled him. Was it arrogance, a sense of entitled narcissism he had inherited from his ancestors, that would make him take on the burden of an entire planet in his mind. "There's a war going on, and Rajar is stuck in the middle. Surely it's not your fault all the key routes pass through it."

The twi'lek slumped down into a chair. "It's about more than just Rajar. There's always been tensions between the clans themselves, and between the offworld...dealers they work with." He was referring to, Anakin realized, the slave traders that exported the locals out across the galaxy. To places like Tatooine, even, as he remembered the crying twi'lek girl they had set free on Jabba's palace. And in a far more distant memory, the dancing girls attending to Sebulba just before the Boonta Eve Classic. "They argue about power and influence and credits, who should get what share of the profits. Tensions were near a boiling point when I left...and for Clan Thothlis to lose an heir..."

"That's what triggered this conflict," Obi-Wan asked incredulously. Mace had asked him to investigate the causes of the unrest, and somehow Senator Amidala had unwittingly led him to the source? Thank the Force indeed.

"Both my younger brothers wanted the inheritance. Juul received my father's blessing, but Sarnai had allies too among the clans. He absconded with not an insignificant share of our family's...properties..."

"Slaves," Anakin interrupted harshly.

"Yes. Slaves, among other things. My father sought to punish them. Sarnai went to some of the offworld dealers, hoping to undermine my father and cut him out...and what started as small raids and skirmishes now...threatens to consume us all."

It suddenly dawned on Anakin why the young mayor had given up on himself, and on his city. It was his guilt. It drove him back to Ryloth, and now it drove him to helplessness. He was caught in the middle of a conflict that he felt entirely responsible for...and to be consumed by it, in his mind, was the only fitting punishment.

An older twi'lek ran into the room. He was one of the mayor's aides. "Milord. I've several accounts of rebel activity. Several units have taken out the outer defenses."

"So it's begun," Paan said reproachfully at the two. "Your plan did not account for the rebels attacking us first."

"Did we not," Padmé said cryptically. With the flick of a switch, one of the doors to their transports opened, revealing hundreds of blasters and detonators. No one in the room seemed more horrified than Obi-Wan.

"That was the one I...you had me..." He stepped forward at Padmé with an aggressiveness that brought Anakin immediately to her side. "Senator Amidala, this is serious. For a Jedi to be involved in illicit arms trading..."

"Senator," the mayor exclaimed. Both Kara and Wipper seemed even more astonished.

"I apologize for the subterfuge, but with everything going on we didn't know who we could trust, so you can see why we chose to keep our identifies secret. I am Senator Amidala of Naboo, and this is Anakin Skywalker, my husband." She looked over to Obi-Wan. "Master Jedi, you can rightfully place the blame on me once we get out of this mess. Mayor Paan, will your people fight?"

"My people are not soldiers, but this will give us a fighting chance."

"Senator Amidala," Obi-Wan interrupted, his tone still scolding, "I will say this again, I am not here to fight a war."

"Then  _negotiate_  with the rebels. The Jedi are peacekeepers, no?"

He sighed, having been outmaneuvered again. "I suppose I can try." He hoped Master Yoda didn't hear him say that. Actually, he hoped Master Yoda would never learn any of the details from this rapidly unraveling mission.

"And if we are in trouble, you can always ask for backup, can't you? Surely the Jedi will save their own."

"I can send out a distress signal, but I'd rather not." He knew actually that Quinlan Vos was nearby, investigating suspicious activities on Geonosis. The Council would likely send him, and the kiffar Jedi would never let him live down a rescue.

The mayor's comlink then chose to beep. He looked at it in apprehension. "It's from the governor's guard."

"Answer it," Padmé pressed. The Senator was quick to take charge of the situation, Obi-Wan thought.

The figure that appeared was, as they expected, the rogue Jedi that had attacked them in the depot. "Mayor Thothlis. I believe you are harboring certain fugitives..."

Padmé stepped into the screen next to the mayor before he could speak. "Lady Ventress, do you not care that the rebels are mounting an offensive on Rajar."

"I have my orders," she hissed.

"You also have orders to apprehend a rogue Senator and her friends, do you not? Well, I can confirm that we are here in Rajar. If you want us, you'll have to come get us. It might get hairy here soon, so I wouldn't come alone." Ignoring the bare headed woman's snarl, she continued. "We will surrender ourselves to your custody, of course, once you arrive. But I'd suggest for the sake of your own safety you bring air cover over the city, or none of us may make it out of here."

"You will pay for your insolence," Ventress snapped, and her image abruptly disappeared.

Obi-Wan shook his head. Despite everything, he respected Amidala's fearlessness in defying a dark Jedi, though it was more likely ignorance that she truly didn't understand how dangerous Ventress was, despite his every warning. "I hope you know the game you're playing, Senator."


	6. Chapter 6

"What I said was true, you know." Far above them, Obi-Wan and Padmé were inspecting the city's defenses, while Wipper and Paan were busy distributing the weapons to the local guard and any able bodied citizens who had volunteered to fight. Anakin didn't like being left behind, but monitoring the central comps for any sign of an enemy approach was critical, and Padmé always lectured him on the need for patience, on how he couldn't just run off and blast or cut away at his enemies. "I was born a slave on Tatooine. Padmé was the Queen of Naboo, though I didn't know it when we met."

"I think you see too much of your own story in me and Wipper," Kara said, cutting him off. She was remarkably good with the central controls of the city, as she steadily directed the arming efforts of each sector and processed each combatant into the system so they could get a full accounting of their strength. It was much more rewarding work than processing slaves. "I appreciate your caring, but I'm not a Queen, or a Senator. I may be free now, but I've been a slave for longer than you have been alive, Anakin Skywalker. I've been degraded in ways you can never imagine." She emphasized his name to remind him of their earlier duplicity.

"I understand. And if I overstepped my bounds, I apologize."

"You don't need to," Kara replied, feeling awkward. No one had ever felt the need to apologize to a slave, besides other fellow slaves. No freeborns, and certainly not someone so high ranking in the Republic as Anakin.

"He does need you. He's young...he feels passion...that he would not know what to do with, not without direction." He turned his blue eyes towards her, staring at her earnestly. "I understand you're not going to develop romantic feelings for him overnight, having known him for so long. But be his friend. He will be grateful for that, I assure you."

"We've always been friends," Kara asserted. "That will not come to an end now that we are free, and not bound to each other by force."

"He may not know that, and it scares him."

"Tatooine is not far from here," Kara started, clearly seeking to change the subject. "I was sold there once, you know. Many years ago. But the Hutt lord that purchased me died before I could have been shipped off. My master still got his credits, and he kept his slave, so he was happy either way."

"Jabba," Anakin asked. Kara nodded. It was ironic that she was thankful that she was never sold to the late Hutt lord. While she would have suffered the usual humiliation in Jabba's palace, he and Padmé would have been able to free her when they raided the palace, and she could have enjoyed four more years of freedom. "I heard news of his demise as well. Do you know what happened to him?"

"Everyone whispers, but no one knows for sure. It's said...," she hesitated.

"Go on. I've heard some fantastic tales when I visit my family there."

"Demons," she whispered fearfully. "Two demons with hideous yellow eyes, born of the sand and wind and the elements themselves. They come from deep in the desert, their lairs underground, a hundred times deeper than the Sarlaac's cave. They came for Jabba's because his sins were too great, even for them, and they claimed him for themselves."

It never failed to give him a sense of pride when he heard others recount the varying legends of Jabba's death. He remembered the one twi'lek slave they had set free, who had witnessed the slaughter in the palace, who was clearly the one who had spread the tale, and wondered whether she was still alive, and whether she was still free.

"Tatooine is a harsh planet, a land of mysteries. I would not doubt it."

The angelic image of his wife appeared on the holoprojector. "Anakin. We've received visual reports of the governor's guard in the upper canyons."

He squinted his eyes at the control screen. "I see them too. Kara, can you handle it from here? We'll contact you if we need anything."

"Yes," she said boldly, without any doubt in her voice. "This is all of our fight."

* * *

They both crouched behind several of the large boulders atop the canyon, on a bluff above the rim. Below ran a small procession of assault vehicles, accompanied by small fighters hovering methodically above them.

"They're taking their damn time, aren't they," Anakin remarked contemptuously.

Padmé shook her head sadly. "They want us. They're in no hurry to save the city. We'll just have to make them."

"Do you sense Ventress?"

"In the rear."

"Coward," Anakin snarled. "I still think we should take care of her now, with Obi-Wan occupied. I don't like having to hold our powers back. It's too risky."

To his surprise, Padmé smiled at him. "Awww. You're being protective of me, your weak, frail, helpless wife. That's cute." She leaned into him to kiss him briefly on his lips. "That's why I love you."

"About time you said that. It's been too long."

"It couldn't have been more than fifteen standard hours ago," thinking back to the last time they had been alone, on their way back to Bruk'ira. They hadn't had a chance to regroup and replan since then.

"I know. Too long."

He was so sweet, so endearing, that she couldn't help but lean in and kiss him again, for longer this time. "I know you worry. You're growing up. You're leaving boyhood...way too fast for me honestly, and it's your role as a husband and a man to worry for your wife." She smiled at him, the soft look in his eyes reminding him of her vulnerability, of exactly why he feared for her. "But I'm Sith master, I can handle myself. The people of Rajar can't, and that's why we need to act now."

"I understand," Anakin said. "We must do our duty. For the people of Rajar. Especially when the Jedi refuse to."

Without another word, the two of them leaped down into the chasm below, each grabbing hold of a ship. The fighter rocked upon impact as Anakin held on to one wing. As it was going at a fairly tepid pace, Anakin regained his balance immediately and propelled himself towards the covered cockput. One one punch, he broke through the transparisteel covering, shocking the young twi'lek pilot.

"Sorry guy, not your day today." One a subtle shove through the Force, he knocked the pilot out. He looked over to his left, where he saw to his satisfaction that Padmé had taken control of a fighter in similar fashion. Grabbing the unconscious pilot's headset, he spoke, "think you can keep up with me, old maid?"

"Try me, Skywalker." Without a moment's hesitation, both ships fired their propellers and rocketed away from the rest of the fleet.

"Red 95, 17," an angry female voice rang through their communications. "What's gotten into you?"

"That would be Angel-1 now, Lady Ventress," Anakin retorted. "And Wizard-7."

"You insolent brats!"

"Catch us if you can," Anakin dared, before crushing the comm with the Force. Charging his fighter up and over the canyon, he swung south around the city, Padmé following closely behind him. She may be his teacher and superior in most ways, but he was still by far the better pilot. Behind them, entire squadrons geared up in pursuit, though he could tell they were shooting at them carefully enough to try to disable, not destroy them. Either way, they were both able to avoid being hit and soon, their navcoms warned loudly that they were venturing close into enemy territory.

"General...is it General Ventress," Padmé asked, scolding Anakin mentally for the short sighted act of destroying his communication with someone they still needed to cooperate with to a certain degree. "We're approaching rebel airspace, and they're going to try to shoot all of us down. I suggest you instruct your pilots to actually engage your enemies for once...especially if you want to capture us alive."

There was no response, but they both noticed that their pursuers were now firing at the surprised rebel pilots, who had not been expecting a response from the governor's army, interesting information that Padmé filed away for later. She swooped down towards the planet surface, Anakin following her now, and began strafing the cannons and vehicles, spinning as she dodged the enemy fire. Somewhere down there was Obi-Wan, who had taken up the task of trying to negotiate a ceasefire with the rebels, only to be undermined by her and Anakin for what would be the umpteenth time in less than two standard days. While the Sith part of her told her to disregard his life, she still hoped that their actions would not result in the poor man's death. He was a Jedi, she told herself, and should be capable of taking care of himself, and she preferred him alive just so that they could further aggravate him with their own special brand of sith torture, albeit much milder than what Sidious would have in mind. Even though their mission, as Sith, not as representatives of the Republic, would be much easier without the supervision of their guardian.

"Fucking Sith hells," she swore as the impact of a blast from one of the cannon's below rocked her fighter, careening her down towards the surface. Above her, Anakin flew nearly out of her sight, dodging and weaving the enemy fire as now Ventress's fighters provided enough distraction and firepower to start stacking the numbers in their favor. She pushed her fighter upwards, willing it to regain the elevation lost, but the right wing sputtered, clearly damaged. With no other choice, she diverted her course down towards a small cove behind the rebel positions, hoping to glide her ship to as gentle of a landing as possible.

 _Angel! What's going on?_ Anakin's voice shot through her head, frantic, yet weak as their physical distance and distractions made their communication more difficult.

 _Got clipped. Going to make a landing. Finish your run_ , she ordered, envying Anakin's piloting skills. She was not bad herself, but her natural connection with the Force was simply not as strong as Anakin's, and as a politician, she had not devoted most of her free time to flying. Sidious had not been much of a pilot either, and she hated to admit that they were more similar than not. While her old master was lethal with his saber and the sheer darkness of his power, as Siths in the political realm, their true strengths had been planning, guile, deception, and their ability to cloak and hide their true intentions from the most perceptive minds in the galaxy, whether it be the Jedi or their fellow politicians. Plus, Padmé had been the better planner in the end, had she not? After all, Sidious had died by her doing, in a way that he never could have foreseen.

_I'm coming back for you, angel._

Padmé heard several explosions in the distance as Anakin and his former pursuers continued to wreck the rebel army. More and more of Ventress's forces were moving in, and she sensed in the distance finally the approach of her armored vehicles. Though the rebels had them outnumbered slightly, the surprise attack they brought upon them had evened the odds, and as she crashed onto the dusty surface, fighter careening to a stop just before it slammed straight into a cliff, she felt the panic and fear emanating around her. Death too, their armor were pounded like sitting ducks on the ground. To her left, she saw an array of rebel ships fly into battle, their arrival too late to break the hold Ventress's pilots already had over the skies.

 _I'm in the rear positions. Obi-Wan is nearby too, I sense him. Where he is is where the rebel headquarters are. Best way you can protect me is to take out all the units around me._ Drawing on the dark energies around her, she honed her focus until she could map the entirety of the surrounding battle in her mind. Again she cursed Antilles for saddling her with a Jedi bodyguard. Without his presence, she could be practicing the new battle meditation methods she was studying, manipulating the chaos around her with the Force to her own ends. With Obi-Wan so nearby however, she could do little but the most subtle manipulations, guiding Ventress's bombers to their targets with better accuracy.

Jumping out the ship, she spotted a small squadron of commandos approaching, likely looking to investigate the crashed enemy ship. She crouched behind a small dirt bluff, and pushed through the Force, rather than threw, two thermal detonators at the advancing soldiers. The ensuing explosions rocked the desert floor, and taking advantage of the resulting chaos as well as the fact that she could feel through the Force the positions of the survivors through the smoke and rubble, she pulled out a blaster in each hand to finish off the survivors.

Heading into a small gully for cover, she ran towards where she sensed the Jedi was, in a mobile HQ vehicle stationed in the safely of a small, cliffed off cove. So he had started his negotiations after all. Glad that Obi-Wan was still willing to follow some of her direction after all they had done to him, she wondered how she would handle him now. He was likely already a hostage of the rebels, as they would now suspect that Obi-Wan's efforts with diplomacy were a distraction while Ventress's army ambushed them. Leaving him here captive would make the rest of her plans easier, but rumors of the rebel leadership were unreliable, to say the least, and she could not afford to end up with a dead Jedi this early into their plans, which would invite upon them more suspicion than everything else they've already done on planet.

 _She's close_ , she heard Anakin scream through their bond the same time Padmé felt the arrival of Ventress herself. Spying a larger than usual fighter shoot its way to through the rebel lines, Padmé calculated the distance she still had to reach the Jedi. The quickest way would be through an open clearing, which would expose her to heavy fire, and likely slowing her down more than the terrain would. She could slowly continue her current course, ambling up and down over rocky boulders towards structure, but as Ventress's ship swooped down into the clearing ahead of her, it was obvious that she was cutting her off from her destination.

"I surrender," Padmé declared, walking into the clearing and throwing her two blasters onto the ground. She had shielded herself well enough so that there was no way the uncouth rogue Force user could have detected her, but Ventress obviously had a trace on her ship as well as Anakin's, and somehow she had been able to guess as to her destination as well. Was it Obi-Wan? She could tell his shielding was perfect as well, the Jedi having raised his guards the moment they encountered Ventress on the planet.

The woman slithered out of her ship, hatred in her eyes. "Traitor," she snarled.

"I understand our actions today were unconventional," Padmé said in her best diplomatic voice, "but surely you cannot be mad at me for helping you win a battle."

"You know nothing of what you've gotten yourself into,  _Senator_."

With a violent jerk of her arms, Padmé found herself lifted into the chair, her breathing constricted. Ventress pulled her roughly through the Force towards her until she gripped her neck with her hand as tightly as she did with the Force choke.

"Keeping talking, Senator, but I'm afraid there's no one left to listen to you." With her free hand, she slapped the younger woman struggling in her grip, her sharp nails drawing blood against her face. "You'll a fetch a good price, no doubt, a pretty little thing like you. I hear the hutts especially like their slaves highborn. Or Prince Xizor...he has several former queens and princesses in his harem."

They both heard the rumbling of another ship. Afraid to fire directly on them for fear of hurting Padmé, he instead landed his ship recklessly next to them and jumped out of his fighter with all the speed he could muster.

"LET! HER! GO!" He screamed, and it felt like the Force itself thundered with his words.

Recognizing the rage and the terror in her husband's eyes and knowing he had heard Ventress's last sentence, Padmé strained herself to scream out despite her foe's vice grip over her neck.

"Anakin! Noooo!" But it was too late, they both felt a burst of fierce energy their way, and this time, it was Ventress herself who was choking. Abruptly dropping her grip of Padmé, she let the Senator fall while she clutched her own neck in vain, slowly collapsing onto the ground. Anakin was there in no time, and for a moment she caught the sheer force of his glowing yellow eyes and knew this was the last sight she would ever see.

"Anakin," Padmé rasped, her voice recovering slightly, "let her go." He turned his eyes onto her in confusion, the internal struggle evident between carrying out what his instincts told him to do, and what Padmé was telling, nay, commanding him.

"Obi-Wan," she said with as much force as she could muster without projecting her voice, and Anakin's eyes widened in recognition. Immediately Ventress began gasping for breath, and Anakin turned to see the Jedi walking towards him, accompanied by a dozen rebel commandos. His hands were bound behind him, his eyes neutral as several of the rebels ran ahead towards their small group, blasters pointed. Half in shock at what he had already done, Anakin helplessly dropped his blaster onto the ground, raising his hands in submission, Padmé doing the same.

"What happened here," one of the leaders yelled out, a Weequay, his scaly skin glistening in the eerie glow of the desert's eternal dawn.

Ventress shot up angrily, shaking the dust out of her vest. "You're late Hondo." She studied the wary eyes of the Senator, and then at her young husband, examining him with a blend of curiosity and fear as if he was some kind of exotic specimen found in a dangerous jungle. Turning her eyes then at the Jedi, she waited until he was close enough to hear. "I was fine. Bitch kicked me when I wasn't paying attention."

Obi-Wan stared almost sadly at her. "You are truly lost, Asajj."

She spat on the ground at him. "You know nothing, Jedi."

Padmé breathed a sigh of relief. It had worked. Anticipating the outburst that was about to come from her husband, she had tried her best to contain it. His dark rage had been too powerful for her to shield completely from the Jedi, but she had been able to dilute it with enough of the rage coming from Ventress to direct Obi-Wan's suspicions towards the more obvious suspect. That Obi-Wan did not see Anakin's hands gripped together was sheer luck.

"Don't underestimate these prisoners, pirate." Her steely eyes never left the young man as she apparently issued the orders to the rebel commander. "They are dangerous indeed."

One of Hondo's hunchmen, another pirate, wrenched Anakin's arms behind his back and slapped a pair of binders roughly onto his wrists. The head pirate himself did the same to Padmé, but not before sidling up way too close behind her and letting his hands linger way too long on her hips.

"There's no loyalty amongst scoundrels, is there," Padmé asked contemptuously.

"We'll take care of them," Hondo said back gruffly, ignoring her comment. "They took out a whole squadron of our scouts, so we're fully aware of the threat."

"Are you now," Ventress said slowly, moving her eyes away from the pirate/rebel and onto their captive Jedi. "The battle is won for me and lost for you," she declared. "I will personally accompany you to the transfer, just in case."


	7. Chapter 7

Padmé cursed herself. Maybe her critics were right, and she was too naive for her own good. The civil war on Ryloth was, unfortunately for the Republic, pretty typical of the unrest that had been spreading from system to system. Certainly the sheer corruption and greed on both sides differentiated this conflict from others, though its death toll was, sadly, below average thresholds. Both sides seemed so horrible that Padmé had not thought that either could get any worse on such a provincial level, that the two sides, on at least certain levels of the conflict, would collude with each other, with the people being the innocent victims. She should have known better, of course, having studied under Palpatine himself, and it rung her as ironic that this was what her old master had ultimately planned for the entire galaxy.

She could blame some of her oversight on the Jedi. Obi-Wan was undoubtedly a distraction, and she had lent too much of her focus on planning around him. It was too many moving parts, and the way everything had worked out perfectly up until their capture had made her complacent. It showed her that while she was the senior Sith of the galaxy, she had not reached Sidious's mastery yet, though another voice asked if she really wanted to. Her first goal was to get them out of this mess in the first place. One solution was that they unleash the full extent of their powers, and the rest would be easy enough, but the only problem was that they would have to kill Obi-Wan, who would undoubtedly be a witness to their true nature.

_I'm sorry, Padmé. I couldn't control myself. I failed us._

Beside her, Anakin looked worse for wear even though she was the one who had taken the brunt of their physical punishment. He was obviously distraught at his mistake, letting his guard down in front of a Jedi and almost giving away their identity. Hell, the sheer force of his outburst could have revealed itself across far more systems had she not shielded it. While Padmé blamed herself for placing him in such a situation, that was also the point of his trial as well, to control himself when things were beyond their control.

_None of us are without fault, Ani. We got lucky this time, but it was too close. Don't make the same mistake again._

The two of them had to communicate silently because of the presence of the Jedi next to them in their cell. Obi-Wan stared glumly had the floor, mulling on his failure as well. At this moment, his lament was that he trusted the Senator and the boy Qui-Gon had claimed to be the Chosen One too much.

"Milady, is it a Naboo military custom," he finally said, feigning deference, "to strand all your diplomats in the middle of a battle with no backup and surrounded by the enemy?"

Anakin turned and glared at him, but Padmé, her hands still bound behind her, leaned gently in to tap her shoulder against his, trying to pacify him.

"Clearly the negotiations were a farce anyway if Ventress is in league with the rebels. We would have ended up like this regardless."

Obi-Wan grumbled. Even in captivity Amidala could score debate points against him. "I would have preferred less explosions either way."

"If both armies are hostile, then both their numbers have been reduced. Isn't that a good thing?"

He wondered at the woman who had been Queen nine years ago. Naboo claimed to be a pacifist planet, but even then, Amidala had not hesitated to sacrifice thousands of Gungan lives in battle. That she, then as now, was willing to put her own life on the line did not make things better for him. "The Jedi never take deaths lightly, especially not on such a large scale."

"It's not her fault," Anakin said weakly in between the two. "We tried to help. We freed slaves, and we saved the people of Rajar."

"If Ventress is in league with the rebels, then what makes you think the city is any safer than it was before your stunts?" At least Obi-Wan was able to turn the Senator's arguments against her young husband. Force, it made it ever clearer that she was taking advantage of the kid, being far wiser in the ways of the world than him.

The cell door opened, and in came Ventress along with Hondo and two other Weequay Pirates. Without a word, the lead pirate grabbed a handful of Padmé's hair and ripped it forward, throwing her across the room and shoving her face down onto the ground, ignoring Anakin's screams of panic.

"My own brother was among the ones you slaughtered last night," Hondo said.

"Your brother is a vile dealer of slaves then," Padmé said defiantly from the floor.

With a swift kick he delivered a painful blow to her abdomen. "Bitch! Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life."

As he and two of the other pirates moved in, Anakin strained against his binders, the only thing preventing him from exploding were pleading eyes, half blocked by her hair, now red from her own blood, telling him, begging him that he had to control himself. The three pirates slammed their prisoner with kicks and punches for what seemed like hours to Anakin, and while he managed not to let loose the full might of his dark powers, his body rocked back and forth at he slammed himself against the wall, against Obi-Wan, wailing in pain and anger as he felt each blow, each piece and parcel of his wife's pain as his own.

Finally, mercifully, they stopped, and it broke every tendril of his heart to see the pirate drag Padmé back onto the bench by her hair, her body completely limp and frail. There was no Sith magic that could help her here, as she struggled to sit upright, her hands still bound behind her, but she vowed not to give her enemies the satisfaction of seeing her fall. As if his repulsion couldn't get any worse, he watched as the pirate knelt down so he was face to face before his wife, and licked her face from her chin up over her mouth and nose, absorbing blood and tears alike with his disgusting tongue. Even Obi-Wan, veteran of countless missions for the Jedi, cringed at the sight.

"Kept her face pretty for the auction. For the most part." Hondo turned his attention over to Anakin. "Don't care about yours though." He punched him squarely in the jaw, and only a slight dodge helped him prevent the pirate from breaking something in his face.

As they pulled him to the ground and subjected him to the same treatment they had just put Padmé through, Anakin gritted his teeth and relished the pain. This was his punishment, he screamed to himself. He deserved this, for failing Padmé, for leaving her vulnerable, for letting her feel pain. Whatever she went through, he deserved a hundredfold. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to endure the torture, amplifying even his senses, so that he would never forget the price of failure. Not the price he paid, but the price his  _angel_  paid.

"Enough," Obi-Wan's voice rang through the small cell. He looked defiantly at Ventress. "Pick on someone your own size, will you."

"You'll get yours, Jedi. But not now." She motioned at the pirates. "Bring these two to the interrogation room."

One of the underlings lifted Anakin up by his very sore shoulder, and neither he nor Padmé fought back as they were led down a narrow hallway.

 _She's afraid of us_ , Padmé sent over through their bond.  _She wants to break us, because she doesn't know what we are capable of._

 _Are you hurt_ , Anakin asked simply. He tried to give a kriff about the bigger picture, to worry about how they planned to get themselves out of this mess, but he could think about nothing else except seeing Padmé so helplessly in pain.

 _I'll survive. I've been through much worse._  Thoughts of her time with Sidious came to her.  _There's a reason Ventress lied to Obi-Wan. She wants to use us. We can take advantage of that._

_She's taking advantage of us by merely existing. I'll end her. I'll end all of them._

_Not without patience, Ani. You did well, not reacting in there. I love you, but you need to focus on the mission. Obi-Wan's right. We will jeopardize all that we saved if we don't._

Padmé stopped in the middle of her conversation when Ventress snapped her head back at the two. She could swear she felt something buzzing within the Force, but was not close to being attuned enough to understand what was going on. There were a few ways to play this, Padmé thought. She could reveal the full truth to her and offer to teach her, to become her master. The woman may be intrigued by such an offer, or she could be threatened, her pride insulted. Another option would be to play dumb and flatter the woman. Her and Anakin's skills lay at the most amateur level, and they were the ones who sought to truly learn the dark side. Had Anakin not revealed so much power, it could have been plausible, but Padmé had reason to believe Asajj would suspect such a ruse. The woman regarded her with suspicion as well, and she clearly sensed that Padmé had not been standing idly by as Anakin projected his rage for all to feel around them, yet leave an experienced Jedi none the wiser.

 _Follow my lead_ , Padmé said as they brought the two into another featureless room, this one with two chairs facing each other across a table.  _She's seen too much. We can't afford to underestimate her now._

"Leave Ohnaka," Ventress commanded as two of the pirates shoved their prisoners roughly into the stiff, uncomfortable chairs.

"With all due respect, we were the ones who captured them while you were on the ground."

Before he could finish his sentence, Hondo found himself flung violently into the hallway, landing unceremoniously against the wall. He looked back at the former Jedi, whose eyes brooked no further tolerance for dissent.

Hondo shook his head. He beckoned the other two pirates, indicating now was not the time to fight. "Same arrogance, whether they call themselves a Jedi or not," he muttered as he heard the cell door slam.

"What are you," Ventress hissed at them once they were alone.

"I'm Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo. Formerly their Queen. This is my husband, Captain Anakin Skywalker, head of my security. We are here to nego..."

"Don't waste my time." She glared at the younger boy. "That stunt you pulled out there. Who taught you?"

"Have you heard of the Sith," Padmé said plainly.

"Stupid question, senator." She moved to slap her, but stopped. Something in the politicians eyes made her realize that this was not the right approach. "I felt his power when he attacked me. It was..."  _glorious, magnificent, overwhelming, frightening_ "...something to behold."

"What do you know of the Trade Federation Crisis, Commander?"

Ventress nodded. The fact that senator had bothered to learn her official title, recognizing her authority and willing to address her as such on a formal level, was an encouraging sign. "I read your files."

"What those files didn't include," Padmé started, as if her body wasn't bloodied and bruised, as if she were in the middle of a committee meeting or power lunch, "was that the Jedi who accompanied me on Tatooine recognized in Anakin power on an unprecedented scale...potential unlike any other Jedi before or since." She could tell she had Ventress hooked. "Master Qui-Gon believed Anakin to be the Chosen One of the Force itself, the embodiment of an ancient prophecy. From what I overheard, my husband's midi-chlorian count exceeds that of master Yoda."

"Lies," Ventress said weakly, not fully believing her own words, not after what she had experienced today.

"Search your feelings," Padmé said, seeing through the woman's uncertainty. "You know this to be true."

"What are you to him? Does the boy speak? Are you his mouthpiece?"

"Don't talk to my wife like that," Anakin threatened, and for a moment Ventress thought she caught a hint of yellow in his blue eyes. The same sickening color she had seen in the desert. Ventress smiled at the boy. He would be much easier to manipulate.

"You may be of some use, boy. But I don't need a translator. Tell me why I shouldn't sell your bitch to the highest bidder."

Anakin smirked. He had picked up a few pieces of Padmé's plan. "Then you'll lose whatever chance you have to contact the Sith."

"Explain."

"The Jedi Council refused Master Qui-Gon's request to train Anakin. He was too old, too attached to his mother, and to me." Ventress would not know her lie of omission, that the council had changed their minds, only to have Anakin turn them down instead, to train as a Sith. This was not public record, as none in the order wished to spread the word of a massively powerful and untrained child let loose into the galaxy, not with the belief that the Sith master was still out there. Now was the time to mix falsehoods with facts. "They did not want to lose all contact with the boy, of course, so the order sent various Jedi from time to time back to Naboo to check up on him. It's possible some masters took a liking to him. It's possible that some masters cared less for the more stringent instructions of their council."

"Obi-Wan?" Ventress back to the room where they were. "He trained Anakin?"

Padmé shook her head, but chose her words carefully, differently. "You'll never get him to admit it."

Seemingly satisfied, Ventress moved on. "What of the Sith?"

"The apprentice was killed on Naboo. The master seeks a new one."

A hush fell over the room, as Ventress could not betray the sheer fear she felt at the mention of a Sith master. Especially not after what she had already witnessed today...if that was only a fraction of the power..."you know the Sith master?"

Padmé nodded, looking sadly at Anakin. "He wishes to claim Anakin as his own."

"What does this have to do with you? If the Sith wants your husband, he'll rip him from you kicking and screaming."

Padmé's eyes narrowed. "Not with the Jedi monitoring him. Not overtly at least. But Anakin was made a ward of Naboo. I, as his sovereign, had the final say over the comings and goings of the Palace."

A smile began to form on Ventress's lips. She had underestimated the deviousness of this do-gooder Senator. "You controlled access to him. You whored the boy out to whoever wanted him, yet you accuse me of being the slave trader."

"One simply does not defy a Sith master and live to tell the tale," Padmé replied stonefaced. "I do what I must to survive. If my planet can benefit from it, all the better."

"Thus explaining the meteoric rise of Senator Amidala." Ventress broke into a laugh, fondling Anakin's chin, still coated with dry blood, as though he were a child. "Hear that, boy? That's what your wife thinks of you. You serve her as a slave, only instead of controlling you with a chip, she uses her position, and when that dried up, her cunt."

"I love him," Padmé broke in, speaking fiercely from the heart, yet allowing herself to keep interspersing her lies with the truth. "Not everything is an absolute, Ventress."

"You'll see the absolute when your Sith friend doesn't need you anymore," Ventress snapped back. "So you'll use the boy again. You'll trade him now for your life, your freedom."

"Where we go, we go together."

"Don't you see he's toying with you," Ventress started, then stopped. She wanted to tell this self-important Senator that she was being used just as crudely, that once the Sith saw the opportunity, he would use her death and pain to break the boy and cement his allegiance to the Dark Side. Asajj knew enough of the Sith to understand that, but she would allow the uppity bitch to keep her illusion. It would make the final break all that painful, and with any luck, Asajj would be there to witness it herself. "We have a deal," she stated.

"The safety of Rajar is..."

"None of your business," Ventress hissed. The do-gooder aspect of this Senator was contemptible, even infuriating to her. Obviously Amidala was overcompensating, trying to ease her conscience from having made a deal with the Sith master for the soul of the boy she thought she loved. A boy who could be a powerful weapon, wasted in the doting arms of this perverse guardian/wife relationship. "Connect me with your Sith master, and you will keep your pretty little body. That is all. Maybe even your freedom, if your precious senate doesn't throw you in jail for all the crimes you committed on Ryloth."

She waved the door open, and the two pirates waiting outside escorted them to the command room. The rebel leader Hondo was already waiting for them, a blaster pointed at Obi-Wan's back, and they watched in horror as their transport approached the city. Ventress stood at the head and entered in a frequency, and seconds later the holo of the mayor appeared before them.

"Mayor Paan Thothlis," emphasizing the man's family name, "do you still stand with your clans?"

"We are loyal to the Governor, commander," the mayor replied glumly.

"I understand you have illegally acquired munitions due to the actions of a few rogue players, individuals who will not longer be able to provide you with any further assistance. I will forgive you your transgressions as they are understandable, so long as you lay down your arms now and open up the gates of the city."

Both Anakin and Padmé moved to scream, but Ventress immediately lit her lightsaber and pointed it at Padmé's neck. Anakin looked warily at Obi-Wan, reminded of the Jedi's presence, though Obi-Wan himself interpreted it as a plea for help from the boy, help that he was currently unable of giving.

"I will do as commanded," Paan said sadly, about to end the transmission and for once, Anakin couldn't fault him for his fatalistic attitude. Not with the combined weight of the entire loyalist and rebel armies outside his city, ready to destroy them.

"There is more," Ventress continued. "I am informed that the rogue agents of the Republic illegally confiscated property they had no right to during last night's raid. I demand its return."

The mayor's blue lekkus twitched nervously, seeming to even pale. "Commander Ventress...surely the...contractors you speak of...I was informed that they belonged to rebel forces."

"Rebel or not, they are Ryloth. The fight is not so simple now. The Republic seeks to impose its will, inciting offworld agents to violate Rylothian sovereignty. I have the full authority of the Governor to end this threat before it spreads."

"Obi-Wan," Padmé yelled, grabbing the Jedi's attention. She spoke to Ventress, but her eyes never drifted from the Jedi. "The Republic cares about the people of Ryloth. If we overstepped, we apologize. But as a part of the ongoing  _negotiations_ , I have one more condition. If you turn it down, I will have no choice but to rely on our Jedi advisor."

"Condition," Ventress asked, looking uneasily at Kenobi, realizing too late Padmé's secret message to her. "You would sacrifice yourself for... _them_?"

They were both tied in with the Sith now...in the eyes of the Jedi, complicit, and apparently this senator with her sudden rash of conscience was willing to throw away her own life by revealing the Sith master to the Jedi, as well as Ventress's desire to seek him. Anakin would be safe to an extent, as the Sith master clearly coveted the boy, but Amidala would immediately have voided her own usefulness and incur the full wrath of the Sith. Ventress imagined she would be hounded by both orders, and were she caught by the Jedi, she doubted they were strong enough to protect her. She could slaughter the Jedi if Amidala revealed their secret to him, but apparently that discretion was the only thing holding back the boy from using his full powers, and there was no doubt that regardless of the body count, whatever happened in  _that_  aftermath would invariably attract the attention of the Sith master.

"Name your one condition," Ventress finally relented to everyone's shock besides Padmé's.

"You and the rebel captain Hondo Ohnaka," she made sure to spell out the rebel presence and commander, "have enough troops combined to wipe out Rajar, despite its recent acquisition of arms. While I'm sure you will do your best to prevent civilian casualties, we all know that even the smallest miscommunication in such a volatile environment can have the deadliest of consequences. No one wants a slaughter, not yourself, and not the mayor. The army does not need to enter the city. This transport is large enough to carry all of the...contraband you wish to reacquire. Bring it and it alone before the city gates, and I have faith the Mayor will honor his duty to his clans. If there is any trickery or ill-intent, then you can still be assured that your army will achieve its ends."

Ventress studied the senator for several tense minutes, trying to figure out her angle. There was a plot afoot, unless Amidala was truly that selfless, but she had little leverage at the moment. As the senator turned her gaze to her pirate, Ventress realized that she was sending her another hidden warning. She had made a deal with them, undermining her agreement with Hondo and his crew, leaving her the one person in the room with the most secrets to keep. They were still doomed to failure of course, outnumbered as they were, but somehow the stupid woman had managed to place her in a corner despite never leaving her chains.

"Very well. Mayor Thothlis, the exchange will happen exactly as the Senator described, and no harm will come to Rajar." Turning the comm off, she swore that she would not make a mistake in this critical moment.


	8. Chapter 8

Wipper let out a sigh of relief, thanking the night gods that the clans, all the blasted clans on either side of this kriffin war, had decided to entrust their security to offworlders. Walking onto the transport, he did not have binders restraining him, as there were not enough apparently for all the slaves being forced back into captivity by the point of the blaster. Besides, they were slaves, after all, and one did not expect resistance from those who were already broken. Still he struggled to not let his fear show when the pirates waved him through after scanning him, not detecting the ancient tribal vibroblade hidden between the roots of his lekkus. He looked over to Kara, trying to give her a calming smile, trying to not betray his own fear, and realized that she felt none.

_"You are brave, Wipper. I have no doubt we will prevail."_

What little time they had they needed to prepare, but he remembered her words to him. A woman, who like him, had spent her entire life in slavery, now dared to hope and dared to believe that they could defy the odds somehow. To Wipper, hope itself was courage. There was nothing brave about what they were about to do, for it was merely a matter of survival.

_"Our lives have been suffering, Kara, but I'm thankful for it all the same. Thankful that you were there. You cared for me, when no one else did."_

He had little to live for, none of them did. He was not the first to contemplate choosing death over his chains, nor the last. Some refused to do so because of what could happen to the family they left behind, even if their family were owned by other masters. Wipper never knew his family, but Kara had always been there for him from his first real memories. She comforted him after particularly brutal days, after beatings, and in time he had done the same for her. He could run away of course, let them blow up his chip, but then who would be there to help Kara through the dark days? Neither one of them were under the illusion that they couldn't be separated at any given moment, but as a slave, neither one of them gave thought to anything but getting through the present.

_"I'm not going back, Wipper. They're not taking me again. Not alive."_

Their jobs, their usefulness to their owners, prevented them from experiencing the worst degradations of slavery for the most part, but not completely. It happened enough so that both he and Kara understood, and they both knew the fate worse than death they would return to. There would be no mercy from the slavers for those unlucky enough to have tried and failed for freedom.

Freedom was an exhilarating drug, and only having tasted it for the first time did Wipper understand just how truly wretched their previous existence was. To be able to think for himself, choose for himself...fight for himself...he understood now there was no greater blessing. He may die, Kara may die, they all may die, but it was going to be by their own volition and since the moment he was freed, he knew that he would not choose to go any other way.

* * *

Obi-Wan let out a rather dramatic sigh. Apparently the former queen had lost her mind. She was reckless during the Trade Federation crisis as well, and apparently her fluke of a success there now made her feel invincible. There was much to be admired about her courage, even were it bolstered by insanity, the young woman standing and speaking defiantly even with her face and body clearly in pain from the torture that had been inflicted upon her, and she would risk her own death as well as her husband's when they could be sitting idly among the Coruscant elite, eating fancy foods with their pinky fingers up in the air.

Not for the first did Obi-Wan bemoan why he couldn't just get some of the more boring assignments his colleagues got...Force Shaak Ti hasn't had to use her lightsaber in almost a standard year. This should have been one of those assignments, guarding a politician, but for once he wished he drew one of the more typical, corrupt, two-faced ones. At least they were too concerned with their own skin to be conducting suicide missions far outside the safety of Coruscant.

"I'm going to assume your remarks about selling off two representatives of the Republic, however inappropriate their actions are, to members of the underworld were made in jest."

"You would do well to worry about yourself, Jedi."

"I sense fear in you, Padawan. Despite your defiance, you fear the consequences of antagonizing the Jedi Order." And there was a new fear as well, Obi-Wan sensed. The girl feared the boy. Surely she sensed his power in the Force now, and perhaps she wondered how truly powerful Anakin was. While a Jedi and a Senator were known factors, Anakin was a wildcard to her.

Ahead of him, Padmé legs, battered from her beating by the pirates, gave way, and she stumbled for several steps before she fell onto the ground. Immediately Anakin broke free of his guard and ran back to her, bending down lamely, his hands still bound behind him, by his wife's side.

"Padmé! Speak to me! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

As the boy screamed in fury, Obi-Wan could feel through the Force the sheer panic and fear gripping the boy, and even now couldn't help but think that maybe it was a good thing he had turned down the Jedi, and whether he could have trained out of the boy this inborn passion and fear, amplified as they were by his years of unfettered attachment to the queen.

"Anakin! Get a hold of yourself!" He did not mean to be harsh, but their situation was volatile enough, and he did not need a hormonal meltdown provoke things further. He cringed on behalf of the both of them, wondering if the boy was always so overly protective in a way not befitting of a captain of security.

"You need to take her to a medbay," he raved, "she needs help. Something's wrong with her. You crossed the line..."

His pleading was interrupted when Ventress rudely slapped him across the face. "You're pathetic, boy. And a waste."

"Anakin," his wife said softly, "I'll be alright. Just a little kink in the ankle."

The reassurance did little good, as Padmé's admission seemed to visibly break the boy's heart. Above them, Ventress waited impatiently. She found the whole scene contemptible, though she had to admire the woman, who had somehow manipulated such power, enough so for the Jedi to believe him a figure of prophecy, into serving as her little whimpering lapdog. The boy would be hers, she would teach him the true power of the Force, and when she was done, the Sith master would thank her for it.

"Take her away," she commanded to one of the weequay guards. It would do them all well for her to cut their bond now. "Keep an eye on her so she can't cause us any more trouble. I'll guard these two myself."

"No," Anakin yelled when he realized what was happening. "You can't...she can't leave me. You can't do this."

Instantly, he felt the hum of a green lightsaber by his neck. "You would do well to understand who you serve now."

As Anakin looked longingly at his wife being led down the hallway, Obi-Wan realized in horror the dark woman's intentions for him. "You will do well to leave him be," he said as she led the two of them into a cell. "An assassin is one thing. What you are considering will bring the might of the entire Jedi Order upon you."

"And who's the one preaching about fear?"

* * *

Two beeps and a whistle echoed behind him, and Paan Thothlis still wondered about the Artoo unit crawling behind him. The Senator had told him to use her droid if there was any trouble. The words had been prophetic, as trouble comprised now his entire existence. To either side of him he watched as Kara and Wipper glumly process the captives from the night before...the women and children of his city...the future of his city...back into bondage.

"Commander Ohnaka," he said, bowing to the rebel in charge on the lower level. "My apologies for your loss and any difficulties we gave you. It was out of my control, I assure you."

"Mayor," the head pirate said gruffly. "I expect a full accounting."

"As a token of my regret, and as a gesture of gratitude for sparing Rajar, I offer young warriors from my city, as well as this Artoo unit. They will serve you well."

Hondo narrowed his eyes suspiciously, studying the ten or so younger males behind the mayor. Something smelled wrong...he did not sniff fear or anger from any of them...

With quick swift motions, Kara and Wipper on either end of the room snatched the vibroblades from between their lekkus and stabbed their guardians in the eye.

"Treachery," he screamed, but before he could do more, the Artoo droid zapped him with a burst of electricity, stunning him momentarily as he watched the droid open up a small door and throw out several blasters towards the mayor and the young twi'leks behind him. Meanwhile the two former slaves, acting almost in unison, immediately flung the still writhing bodies of the pirates in between themselves and the blaster fire now coming towards them, grabbing their weapons from limping hands as they died.

Seeing the mayor come up to him with a blaster pointed, Hondo swore and with all the energy he could summon, swiped the mayor's legs from under him in a moment of surprised. Realizing he was outflanked and exposed, he ran back towards the rear of the room.

"Retreat and form a perimeter in the next level! Cut them off." As his guards fled, he saw the mayor aim and fire true at the door switch, locking it open. The other pirates fired back, but as more of them fell, they ran to flee upstairs where reinforcements were. Not wanting to be outnumbered, Hondo ran too, barely dodging a blaster strike from the woman slave as he fled through the doorway.

"We have a situation," he yelled into his comm as he ran up the stairs.

* * *

"What's your name?"

"Juk." There was something off about the prisoner. Where she had been weak yet defiant minutes earlier, she now gave off a different scent, and her eyes looked almost meekly, shyly, at him.

"Have you ever had a human woman?" The words almost purred out of her mouth as the senator inched her way along the bench towards him.

"That's enough talking," Juk commanded, knowing that his voice was giving away his faltering resolve.

"I've never had a weequay before," she whispered in her raspy voice. "Your rough skin...biting against my smoothness...inside me." She seemed to slither as she dropped down onto the cell floor, kneeling helplessly before him, eyes curious and begging. "The things I've heard about weequay biology..."

Despite lacking the use of her hands, the senator managed to flip herself over so knelt with her ass pointed so close to him, bending down and facing the wall in the opposite direction. She wiggled her rear, and even Juk, who had never had a thing for humans, couldn't help but stare and want to do worse.

It was the last thing he saw before tendrils of blue electricity emerged from the senator's small cuffed hands, enveloping him, the pain so severe that he couldn't even scream. As he died, he did not notice a small key float off of his belt through the air and right into the senator's restraints. Free at last, Padmé stretched as she regarded dying pirate writhing on the ground. Her eyes gleamed yellow, and Padmé squeezed her hand, crushing Juk's skull into itself in an explosion of blood.

"So you bleed red too," she muttered to herself, unimpressed. "How boring."

* * *

The reinforcements were native twi'lek guards, whom Paan despised even more than the offworlders for the fact that they were willing to barter and sell their own brothers and sisters. He hid behind a wall, emerging every so often to fire off a few blasts. Some were hitting their mark, but most of his shots were missing seeing as he was not a trained warrior. Neither were Wipper and Kara, and though they had the initial advantage of surprise on the lower level, their failure to press forward was giving their enemies ample time to regroup and overpower them.

"I can't even see," Wipper yelled from the other side of the room. "There's many blasts out there I can't tell where they are."

"Be careful," Paan yelled, as one of the young men he had brought from the city yellow as a blast struck him fatally between the eyes. "We can't afford to lose anyone." He prayed for a miracle. Somewhere up there was the Jedi. If only they could reach him, rescue him in time, they had a chance, or else his decision would have doomed his entire city to destruction.

He heard the clangs of bodies slamming against the wall, and suddenly the firing stopped altogether. Warily, he peeked his head into the hallway, shocked to find the small Senator standing alone amidst all the bodies. Some were knocked out, unconscious but still breathing, but others were slumped against the walls with their necks bent in unnatural ways.

"What happened..."

"Never mind that," Padmé commanded as Kara and Wipper entered the hallway, their eyes glazed over with shock as well. "Shoot them all. Make it appear as though you killed them."

Wipper ran ahead, following the senator's orders, and Paan followed suit, shooting the already dead corpses.

"I'm surprised you did this," Padmé said. "The odds are not in your favor."

"One has to stand for what's right," Paan said. "It was now or never, and a death gained in honor is better than a life lived in cowardice."

Padmé nodded with newfound respect for the man. "Hurry, we don't have much time before they turn the guns on your city." She paused. "The Jedi and Anakin are on the next floor up. When you see them, tell them you were the ones who rescued me."

Without waiting for them, she ran ahead towards a lift. Paan had a thousand questions for the woman, but apparently now was not the time.

* * *

Anakin couldn't help but be smugly proud of himself, though he wondered if his acting was a little too dramatic. While he still seethed with anger and concern at the sight of Padmé being tortured by the scum pirates, by the end of their interrogation by Ventress he had regained some control over his emotions. Padmé was training him to be a cunning sith lord after all...not some feral animal, and he needed to regain his senses so that Padmé wasn't the one doing all the work.

It had been his idea to separate Padmé, knowing it played into what they all already thought of him. They needed to separate one of them from Obi-Wan, but Ventress was too wary of leaving him alone, knowing that Obi-Wan was the one who kept him from using whatever powers she thought him capable of. He sensed her jealousy towards Padmé for her control over him as well, and all Ventress needed was a subtle nudge into acting on what she already desired. Not that Anakin had been that subtle about it.

He sensed unrest in the lower levels, and to his surprise it had little to do with his wife. He looked at Ventress, who sensed something too, but she was too wary of him, too suspicious of whatever trickery he may or may not be capable of. He knew that Obi-Wan was not ignorant either, but the Jedi kept up his sabaac face and betrayed nothing.

They sat in the silent impasse for a few more minutes, Anakin finding out through their bond that his wife had escaped. Suddenly, the dark woman's comm rang. It was Hondo.

"The mayor betrayed us! They brought arms. We sent reinforcements but they've taken the first two levels already."

Ventress's eyes flared with rage. "Regroup to the command room," she ordered.

"But they're advancing!"

"Let them. The mayor will pay for his treachery. I will have him watch with his own eyes his city burn to the ground before I pry them out with my own fingers." She deactivated her comm in a fury and stared at her two prisoners. "Stay!"

Minutes after she had run off, their cell door opened again.

"Mayor Thothlis," Obi-Wan recognized. "I did not expect this."

"Me either," Paan replied. Quickly, Padmé pulled two keys out of her utility belt and unlocked the binders of Obi-Wan and her husband. Behind them, one of the twi'lek youth handed both of them blasters.

"I'm afraid I couldn't retrieve your lightsaber, master Jedi," Padmé said. "I hope this crude weapon will have to do."

"They are heading to the control room," Obi-Wan said urgently, "and mean to commence the attack on Rajar."

"We'll take care that," Padmé said. "There are more than three dozen captives sitting helplessly below. I've arranged for a transport situated on the western sector of the city. Escort them there and bring them to safety."

"But...Ventress and her crew. They'll kill you!"

"The needs of the many against the needs of the few, Master Jedi. I am but one senator." She and the Jedi exchanged solemn glances. "I serve. As do you."

"Very well milady." For the tenth time, Obi-Wan paused in his assessment of this Senator. That she was devoted to her cause was evident. That she was reckless in pursuing it had become clear. That she was fanatical...so much as to lay down her life, that did not fit the description of the politicians he knew. Then he realized. This would be her contribution to her bill. The mission had never been about any actual negotiations, and Amidala had known that from the start. She meant to be a martyr, and use her own death to propel her bill to passage, and she would sacrifice even her beloved and the Chosen One. For a moment he pitied the young man, so smitten with love that he was willing to die for a fanatic.

"May the Force be with you, Senator, Anakin."

She gritted out a smile and reached for her husband's hands. Gripping it, they looked at each other longingly for a brief second, then looked back at Obi-Wan.

"We'll be fine. Paan and our friends are surprisingly good shots. They've rescued me and taken command of three floors in this compound by themselves already."

"Very well. But be wary of Ventress. She is more powerful than she would have you believe."

Without another word, Obi-Wan ran off to the lift, but not before Padmé commanded the rest of the men Paan had brought with him to follow the Jedi, leaving only the five of them behind.

"Good acting," Anakin said to his wife.

"Thanks. You too. Much better than that holodrama display earlier."

Anakin shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

"I won't pretend to know what you're talking about," Wipper said, a spark in his eye. "Hurry," he yelled, running ahead.

They all followed him. As they approached the control room, they heard a clang of a small detonator land on the ground.

"Get away from that," Anakin yelled. "Get back here!"

Wipper heard him, but they were all too close, and there was no way they could escape it in time. Looking back and staring into the eyes of Kara, he stiffened and grabbed the detonator, running ahead. There was a small hallway to his left here, and if he could just throw it down in time...

The explosion rocked the hallway, and fire and debris raced towards the small group as the horror of what just happened dawned on them. Stepping to the front, Anakin and Padmé placed their palms forward, somehow creating an invisible barrier between them and the fire, slowly pushing it back.

"No," Kara gasped. Even with the two offworlders somehow shielding them from the explosion, she felt the intense heat within her lungs and couldn't breathe. But right now, she didn't even want to breathe.

"He didn't have to do that," Anakin shouted as the fire subsided. "He didn't have to do that. We would have protected him. He should have known we could."

"Anakin," Padmé said gently to him, noting that his eyes were already yellow. She would not calm the frenzy, but she would direct it. "Let's finish this."

As they continued their advance, Paan spotted two more twi'lek guards emerged by the entrance of the control room, firing at them. Apparently the pirates didn't want to sacrifice their own. He raised his blaster and was about to tell the two offworlders to get back, but somehow they reached their hands forward as they did with the explosion...and  _absorbed_  the shots with their own bare hands. Without any further hesitation, the two guards found themselves violently flung through the air against the wall, the impact so severe that their bodies exploded in blood upon impact.

"How can you...," but he didn't finish his sentence when they looked back at him, both their eyes gleaming yellow. With another push of their hands, the door to the command room bent, caved, and collapsed into itself, revealing the small cadre of Ventress and the remaining pirates.

"You," she screamed, looking in horror at Anakin to Padmé and back and forth between the two, the truth dawning in her eyes. She activated her lightsaber, but before she could move, she felt the violent tug of the Force around her. Trying to fight back was futile...this power was so much stronger, and she screamed in pain as she felt both of her wrists broken, bones crushed into powder instantaneously, and her saber dropped harmlessly onto the floor.

The two Siths strode calmly into the command room like wraiths, almost seeming to float before they came to a stop. Hondo raised his blaster at him, but found himself immobilized and lifted into the air.

"Scum," the boy screamed at him, his upraised arm making it clear who was the one responsible for this predicament. "You will pay for hurting her."

As soon as he said the words, Hondo felt immeasurable pain emerging from inside his own body. To his horror, he saw the entire front of his torso from his chest to his abdomen start to bulge outward. He screamed, and the pain only got worse as blood started to gush out where his skin broke, ripped apart by the invisible force.

Paan watched in horror as the boy somehow ripped the pirate's organs out from inside him, the man still screaming when Anakin dropped him onto the floor, his body collapsing in a bloody, formless heap. Anakin looked around ominously at the rest of the pirates, who cowered before his glare.

"Who's next," he snarled, and this time he lifted two pirates into the air, the other two who had beaten himself and Padmé along with Hondo.

Even as they screamed, Padmé heard both Paan and Ventress ask the same question. "Who...are...you?"

"The new Sith order," Padmé hissed out, her voice lacking any trace of the silky smooth voice of a young, attractive, charismatic woman. With the other two pirates disposed of, they flung the remaining pirates against the controls of the room, impaling them, before turning their attentions to Ventress, who slowly tried to back away from them on the floor. Suddenly, a thin wall of blue lightning formed around the two Siths, who held each other hand in hand. Ventress looked helplessly at the two twi'leks on the other side of the energy wall, no room left in her mind but pure, unadulterated fear.

"You're the master," she managed to say weakly to Padmé. "I will...I will serve you...I will be your slave. I have powers...you've seen them..."

"Still you are blind," the deathly senator intoned back to her. "Darth Bane instituted the Rule of Two. Always a master, always an apprentice. The apprentice learns, gains power, overthrows the master, finds a new apprentice, and the cycle continues."

They stopped when they reached her feet, trembling uncontrollably.

"The example set by Darth Bane is dead. The Rule of Two has changed. Don't you see, Ventress?"

She blinked her eyes, not understanding what the senator was trying to say.

"Two is one. One is whole. One will never be separated."

And finally Ventress understood. She saw through the Force, the energies of the two in front of her...she could not tell them apart. They were joined in the Force itself, they were one, and their union was unbreakable. She never had a chance, and as all her dark ambitions came to an end, Ventress saw the deathly lightning flung forth at her, and felt the darkness overpower her.


	9. Chapter 9

The pain stopped, but when she opened her eyes to the sight of the two Siths, still glaring at her with their unnaturally yellow eyes, Asajj wished she was dead.

"Had enough?"

"Stand," Anakin ordered, and though she was too weak to support herself, she felt her body tugged up by the Force and propped up like an Alderaanian puppet, her limp arms hanging lamely by her side. Asajj watched as her own comm floated up to her eye level. "Your command codes."

Asajj barely was able to whisper out the words haphazardly, and after the boy had dialed in the link, was too worn to care about how she looked to the thousands of troops who were still waiting and watching her for their next orders. Though she didn't know what the senator wanted her to do, she began to speak and realized that her defenses were so weak, somehow the senator (the Sith!) had infiltrated her own mind and was dictating her every action now.

"Commander Ohnaka betrayed our cause and has been punished for his insolence. I am abdicating my command effective immediately, and Mayor Thothlis as the ranking authority present will now dictate your next moves."

Padmé took the dark lady's comm, deactivated it, and handed it over to the still horrified mayor. "You understand that the truth of Anakin and I must never be revealed? Especially to the Jedi."

"You saved us all," Kara said, stepping boldly forward. "I don't care about what you are, only what you did. We are all forever indebted to you."

"Your secret is safe with me," Paan said nervously, but Padmé sensed the sincerity of his words, accompanied by pure fear and subservience.

"Good." She turned to Anakin, who was still holding Ventress up with the Force. "Ani," she said sweetly, "would you like to do the honors?"

"With pleasure." Ventress's lightsaber flew into the young man's hands.

"Please...," she muttered, but her own weapon pierced her heart before she could say another word.

Padmé turned to the two twi'leks. "Now we can finish the job."

* * *

As he ushered the escaped captives along the dark side of the city walls, his attention drifted towards a small fighter ship in the sky. He felt its pilot probing the area, searching, and reached his own consciousness out into the Force like a beacon. Soon enough, the fighter came to a stop next to him, and out jumped a kiffar male about his age.

"Vos. You're late."

"I had my own business to tend to on Geonosis," Quinlan grumbled. "It was tough enough extricating myself period, much less according to your own needy timetables." He paused, studying the utility belt of his fellow Jedi. "Where's your lightsaber?"

Obi-Wan sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time this mission. "Back there," he pointed at the rebel HQ transport he had just escaped from. "Long story...don't ask. Just help me get these fugitives onboard safely."

"Yes sir," Quinlan answered, a mischievous twinkle still in his eye. "You know I'll find out one way or another, don't you Kenobi? I have my ways."

"Only because you never stop reminding me."

The ground they were standing in was rocked by a massive explosion from the rebel control ship, debris and smoke spewed in every direction. Obi-Wan shook his head and but his hand around his eyes.

"Nine years. Nine years I've had that weapon. Nine years of hard work, dedication, memories...all gone."

Quinlan regarded his friend with confusion. "Aren't you concerned about the Senator and her husband?"

Obi-Wan shook his head again. He could still feel the supernova that was the boy's presence in the Force, along with the weaker aura of Amidala. "Oh, I'm sure they're the only ones doing well in this whole mess."

* * *

She draped her arm over his back as he sat hunched over, face buried in his hands. Padmé's husband was not a crier, she had not seen him bawl full out since he was eleven, after a Sith lightning lesson gone wrong. He wasn't crying now either, but his eyes, hidden behind his fingers, were red. She let him release his emotions and thought about the first time she had comforted him on the Nubian so many years ago. It was a tough time for her as well, hearing that her people was suffering, dying by the thousands due to her master's lies and yet, she could not ignore then the Force swirling around the boy, as if it cried out in agony with him while Anakin worried for his mother. And somehow the two Jedi were oblivious to it all. She hadn't been.

"I remember, back on the ship, when you gave me the japor snippet," she said softly to him, and Anakin lifted his head to look shyly at her. "It was then I decided that I could not let you go to the Jedi. You were too precious, you cared too much, and they would have persecuted everything that made you wonderful until they broke you or you broke them. It would have been such a waste.

"I hate the Jedi," Anakin muttered. They sat in the sleeping quarters in one of the rooms of the mayor's mansion, finally entitled to a few hours of rest. "They hold our powers back. It's Obi-Wan's fault Wipper was killed. It's Obi-Wan's fault you were hurt."

"We are Sith. It's our nature to hate the Jedi...but don't hate Obi-Wan for the wrong reasons. He is ignorant, but this mission, this trial, is the one we chose." She thought again to Sidious, who would have encouraged Anakin to indulge mindlessly in the hate. Padmé's philosophy, however, was that hate and other channels to the dark side must be controlled, channeled properly to be effectively directed against the right targets.

"I failed it," Anakin continued to grumble.

"You slipped, but you succeeded afterwards. You held back when the pirates beat me, and you kept a level head even after that. I know how much concentration and effort that took out of you." She kissed him softly on his right cheek, as if to emphasize her approval, thinking sardonically again how this was not how Plagueis or Sidious would have rewarded success. Well...maybe Plagueis. She had heard that the Muun secretly enjoyed dressing up in female attire, though who knows whether that was yet another one of Sidious's many lies.

"I don't want anymore of these trials...not if it means you have to suffer."

"But you must, Ani..."

"I don't care about passing these trials, Padmé. I don't want to become a master."

She looked at her husband in shock. "Ani. I don't understand."

Sniffling, Anakin wiped his eyes continued. "I love you, Padmé. You've been everything to me since freeing me from the Jedi...you've been my mentor, my guide, my soul. I like that. I don't want that to change.

"But you're growing up, Ani. You will change, things will change. One day, you will surpass me completely...that is the way of not just the sith, but the galaxy."

"Don't you see," Anakin said furiously, his voice rising. "I don't want to surpass you, Padmé. I won't have direction. I'd be lost."

"I'd still be here, Anakin. Remember what I said? Partners. Equals. No one says you have to do it alone as a master."

Anakin sighed. "I know. I just...I don't think I'm ready for that. Not yet. I like things the way they are, Padmé. Having you...is a comfort. Maybe it's a crutch. But I've never been an equal before..."

"Anakin." Padmé felt her heart break all over again. Had she not recognized how deep the scars of slavery still ran in her husband's soul? She had done everything she had thought she could to help him break through those chains. Though she had never been a slave by law, the years under Sidious had been close, and everything she did with Anakin over the years had stemmed through her urge to never repeat Palpatine's manipulation and yet, that hadn't been enough for him. Padmé had been born free, so she took her freedom for granted, the years under Palpatine unnatural enough that she took the first opportunity she could to free herself. Anakin was different.

It wasn't that he did not want to be free...Padmé imagined that if he trained under the Jedi, or Sidious, he would have strained against their authority, fighting to break away. Because they would be harsh to him, he would chafe. But the fact that he clearly worshiped her meant that he had unconsciously in his mind willingly placed upon her the mantle of a new master, despite her initial proclamation that she would not have him see her in that manner. And everything she did for him out of kindness, out of love, would have only made him feel more beholden to her. There was the sex too, how she plucked him at such an early age, using him not just for her own pleasure, but incorporating it as part of his training even. The fact that they both enjoyed it immensely did not mean that the young man's psyche had not been affected by it, and Padmé didn't want to think about those implications.

"You've always been my equal, my partner. Since that day you pledged yourself to the Sith...not to me. We changed the direction of the Sith together. We gave this order a new mission, a new meaning. We killed, we freed, together. But," she reached out with her eyes into his, through the Force and into his aura and soul, "if you don't think you're ready, then I won't force you. We are partners, and that means we will complement each other. Your weaknesses will be my strengths, and my weaknesses will be your strengths. Just tell me where you are here," she pointed a finger at his head, "and talk to me. I will listen. Whatever you need me to be, I will be for you, and when you are ready to take the next step, I will do whatever I can to help you achieve your birthright."

"I guess," Anakin said, though he did not look entirely convinced.

"I love you Anakin. Love doesn't mean subservience...they are not the same thing."

"I know. It's just..."

"What is it?" There was something he was not telling her, something that lay at the root of this unease, and unwillingness to achieve his full potential. "We swore to be completely open to each other, remember? No secrets."

"No secrets," Anakin repeated too quickly. He looked away, afraid to meet her eyes. "Your vision. I know you believe it to be Palpatine's lies, but what if you're wrong? What if I  _am_  the one who kills you, with the powers you taught me yourself? I can't..."

"Oh Ani." She took his head and hugged it to her chest, feeling an awful pit in her stomach. Had she been blind to his agony? Had she been truly unaware of what the poor boy was struggling with for the last year? Padmé wanted to tell him that even if he did turn on her, she would be grateful for all the happiness he had given her, but she knew that such words would only further drive him to despair. So she said nothing, letting only her touch and the silence comfort him.

"I never believed I was going to live a long life," she finally said, kissing the top of his head as she did so, trying to calm him so he would hear her through. "That's why even as a child I was driven to do so much...something told me that I had to make a difference, while I still could. I had the dream, but I dreamed that only once, Anakin, I promise you. From then on, there was no room for anyone else in my nightmares instead of Sidious. I was convinced that I was not worthy of him, that I could never become what he wanted me to become, and that he would kill me for it. That the moment he approached me in the palace, I was as good as dead, no matter what answer I gave him. I felt as if my life was just his plaything, and I almost yearned for the day he would put an end to my misery."

She had his attention now, his blue eyes now meekly, barely willing to meet hers.

"That all changed when I met you, Anakin. Remember? When you took my hand on that dusty street in Mos Espa? When you opened your heart and your home to a complete stranger? Because you believed." She smiled herself at that memory. "That was when I believed too. I felt the Force shift in the galaxy, shift and change around me. I realized that I had to protect you from Sidious, and by saving you, I would save myself too. You're not going to kill me, Anakin. You saved me. You opened my eyes and gave me the will, the reason, to defy my master. Do you believe me, Anakin?"

"I believe you," he finally said.

"I trust you, Anakin. I can feel your essence. Maybe Sidious could have twisted you against me if he got to you early enough, but he's dead. Don't fear yourself. Your strength is my strength."

"I understand," he said with much more conviction than before. He rested his head on Padmé's shoulder, and she embraced him once more. Through their bond, she reached her presence into his mind, his soul, opening her mind for him to do the same. "I won't fail you next time."

"You've never failed me, Ani. You give me purpose."

"It's crazy to think about," Anakin replied, his voice and demeanor seemingly more peaceful now, "the entire course of the galaxy changed in some dingy shop out on some Force forsaken dust ball."

Padmé placed her hand on his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. "Wherever you were, the Force would have brought us together. I think...the Force wants us to always remember how precarious it is, this wonderful thing we have together, and never take it for granted."

She heard a knock on their door, and waved it open with one hand. It was Kara.

"How are you doing," Padmé asked. They had succeeded in every aspect of their mission thus far, yet no one felt victorious.

"I miss him," Kara said absently. "He was the only friend I had, and I..." For a moment, Padmé thought the woman was about to collapse in sorrow, but she quickly pulled herself together. "What's done is done. Nothing I say or do now can bring him back."

Anakin recognized the near fatalistic way she viewed the world. As a slave, there was little room for recrimination for what could have been. The only way forward through tragedy to move on with meek acceptance, and Anakin wondered that life could have ever wore him down to that point. No, he decided...he would always have struggled and chafed against his boundaries. Probably to his own death had fate not intervened.

"We will honor him with our deeds," Padmé said, rising and placing her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Wipper's sacrifice will not have been in vain."

* * *

"I told you Senator, I cannot fight a war here."

"No one is asking you to," Padmé said as she scrolled through the mayor's datapad, nodding with satisfaction the latest developments on the planet. Artoo had sliced Ventress's records and found evidence of collaboration between the clans and the rebels at the highest levels, apparently both sides wishing to prolong it indefinitely so that they could use the conflict as a cover to further collect slaves for their coffers. News of the treachery had already spread all across Ryloth, and sector after sector came word of whole battalions laying down their arms or turning on their commanders entirely.

"I don't think there will be much of a battle anyway," Paan said, ready to board his transport. "Bruk'ira is practically undefended by now, and I should be able to take it with ease. I've made contact with Cham Syndulla, who is rallying his forces to take the old capitol of Lessu."

"Syndulla is known as a radical," Obi-Wan explained to Quinlan. "The ruling clans have long had a bounty on his head."

"And he has sat out this conflict," Paan continued, "having rightfully observed the corruption on both sides."

"This was and still is an internal conflict, masters Jedi," Padmé stated. Beside Obi-Wan, the newcomer Vos also frowned his disapproval at her, but Padmé didn't care. "Just as the civil war waged between the clans and the rebels was an internal conflict, the assertion of Paan Thothlis to his clan's birthright is as well. This war began with collusion by those the people trusted to lead them. It will end by the people of Ryloth taking back their planet from its true traitors."

"But by joining the capitol's siege," Quinlan said, "we would be signalling the support of the Republic and the Jedi to one specific faction."

"You don't have to come, masters Jedi," Padmé said courteously. "Anakin and I do not plan to be active participants either. We are there to observe the events so that we can make a full report to the Senate."

"Not your usual politician," Quinlan remarked after the mayor's new army left Rajar, leaving just the two young Jedi knights behind.

"I don't know if that's a good or bad thing," Obi-Wan said. He regarded his old friend carefully, unsure of how much he should confide in him. "She's dangerous, don't you think?"

"She's a zealot," Quinlan finally replied after some thought. "A crusader. Inherently unstable, uncontrollable. Like this Syndulla you speak of, if she is as much of an extremist as her actions have demonstrated on this planet, the senator is capable both of great good...and great evil."

"She's changed. The girl queen was rash, but still reasonable to an extent." He saw skepticism in Quinlan's cynical eyes.

"But think, Obi-Wan. For a young girl and a Queen barely a few months in power to be so rash, what do you think years of power has done for her mind since then?"

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, not wanting to finish his line of thought. But if there was anyone he trusted, it was Quinlan. "Amidala has the boy completely wrapped around her finger...such power...and I do not believe her ignorant of it. Qui-Gon was not known for his subtlety, and I'm pretty sure she picked up on what he believed young Skywalker was. If not, there's no doubt Anakin has long confided in her about everything."

"Do you think she would seek out an alliance with the Sith?" Quinlan's hands went unconsciously to his lightsaber.

"They both believe fervently in this cause of theirs. If the Sith master ever becomes aware of the boy's power, he would do all he can to twist both their good intents for his own purposes."

"He...or she," Quinlan pointed out.

"Ah, good point," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. "I suppose my perception of the sith is affected by the only one I've met in person."

"Do you think the other sith's still out there? It has been nine years, after all, and there's been no signs of a resurfacing."

"They waited a thousand years the first time," Obi-Wan said, feeling naked without his blade as well. "The Sith have proven their patience, if nothing else."

* * *

As predicted, the occupation of Bruk'ira was met with little opposition as the remaining forces of both Ventress and Hondo, already uneasy at the collaboration between their masters, swore loyalty to the mayor and stormed the capital in an orderly fashion. Command found Paan to be a good partner as the young man took grasp of his new army and immediately ordered them to take the critical intersections of the city. Helped by the 'insight' of his senatorial adviser, the three of them surveyed their new holdings in a small shuttle.

"As predicted," Paan said after reading a transmission, "the palace is deserted. Only a few servants remain."

"They are cowards," Padmé said, still in a light trance as she came out of her meditation, feeling the waves and motions of the entire city and army around her. "It is expected."

Anakin stirred restlessly at the shuttle's controls. "You don't think they could have escaped the blockade, do you?"

The soon to be new ruler of Ryloth shook his head. "I suspect they retreated to the emergency bunkers in the lower levels of the city. There are enough rations there to last several standard weeks."

"Give me the coordinates," Anakin said confidently, a grin forming on his face. "Their sanctuary will be short lived."

Minutes later they found themselves by the entrance of a hidden alcove in the cliffs of the lower city. Paan tried several codes in the control panel, swearing in frustration.

"They must have changed them just now."

"No need," he heard the senator say. An eerie chorus of hums rang through the air, and Paan saw that both of his companions had now activated two lightsabers each. Jedi weapons, he realized. But not really. A small gesture with her head, and Anakin stepped forward, cutting through the durasteel door.

"Would you like us to make it quick for your father?"

Paan shook his head. "His crimes are great, and he made his choices with open eyes."

There was a ruthlessness to the man that Padmé was seeing now for the first time, and she liked what she saw. "Very well," she said approvingly. A circular chunk of the door plopped inward to the ground, and Anakin took two steps in before looking back, waiting for his lover. "Make sure these bodies never see the light of day."

She smelled the fear ahead of them and cackled. Easy prey was still prey. Following her husband through the passages, Darth Mirayya felt her body shudder in anticipation. They were going to enjoy this. Both of them. Together.


	10. Chapter 10

Bail Organa had not ever seen the Senate this abuzz with raw emotion, though he wondered how it compared to the stir Amidala had caused upon her first arrival in Coruscant nine years ago, when in the middle of the Trade Federation crisis the Queen's shuttle had tragically crushed both Chancellor Valorum and her own senator Palpatine, an event that spiraled the whole chamber into chaos. It seemed the storm accompanied Amidala wherever she went, though today's fury was unlike any other.

"She has set the precedent that the Republic can interfere and overthrow sovereign planetary governments," former Chancellor Ainlee Teem, who had succeeded Valorum for his own short two year term before losing a vote of no confidence, thundered from his pod. "This can not stand!"

"She exposed the treachery of Ryloth's ruling clans and the complicity of our own colleagues in the vile slave exchange," Mon Mothma countered. "Aren't all of us beholden to follow in her footsteps? Shouldn't learning from our mistakes and improving upon them be the only way forward for the Republic?"

"Not by destroying it from the inside out. Senator Amidala must be punished for her crimes," Lott Dod proclaimed. "I move for a motion of censure and removal of the Senator from Naboo, whose sovereignty itself the Trade Federation's protests notwithstanding, from the senate."

"Order," Bail Antilles called out. "I must remind the Senator from the Trade Federation that only the offended system can call for a movement of censure." The Supreme Chancellor turned to the upper levels of the chamber, where the new senator from Ryloth was seated. "Senator Wipper'lom, do you support a call of censure?"

Swallowing nervously, Kara pushed her pod forward. "Censure? Senator Amidala is to be applauded for the assistance she lent us on Ryloth. She helped us discover the truth nature of the last regime, and opened our eyes to how the evils of slavery corrupted the soul of our planet at every level. Today, Ryloth stands united before the Republic for the cause of freedom. Chancellor Antilles, we are the future, and Senator Amidala leads us."

"Collusion!"

"This is all part of her conspiracy..."

"She is a puppet!"

The ensuing voices drowned each other out, and Bail's mind wandered to the new curtains his wife wanted him to secure while he was on the capitol world. With no further chance of censure or impeachment, what remained of the debate was nothing more than mere pontification and showmanship. Hours later, he went to visit the office of the senator at the epicenter of all the controversy. As expected, Skywalker was there with her, along with the new senator from Ryloth.

"Senator Amidala," he bowed, "may I extend my congratulations to you on the passage of what may well be the most controversial bill in over a hundred years."

"Thank you Bail," she rose to greet the Alderaanian senator. "I only regret that basic decency and doing the right thing is still so controversial in this day and age."

"Who better to change the tide then." He regarded the twi'lek, who still looked uneasy in her new senatorial robes, though her brief address to the Senate today had been made with confidence and courage. Her eyes were so young, and yet so sad already, reminding Bail that however rash her actions were, Amidala stood on the right side of things. "Senator Wipper'lom, I am honored to finally meet you. Yours is truly a story of wonder and inspiration."

"Senator Organa, the honor is mine." Kara bowed, looking briefly at Amidala as if she were still unsure of all the arcane guidelines of etiquette that governed the Senate. "My story is ordinary. The tales of all who I represent are not."

"I heard of your friend, the sacrifice he made. I'm sure he is so proud of you right now." Instantly, Bail regretted his words, wondering if he delved too soon into a sensitive subject after seeing the way Kara's eyes immediately redden at the mention of her deceased friend. The young senator made a quick recovery though, and soon met his eyes with a solemn, steely resolve.

"We slaves have nothing for ourselves. No family names, most of us. Wipper...in the end...there was nothing left of him. Not even a body to bury."

Bail watched as both Padmé and Anakin walked up on either side of the woman, putting their arms around her in support.

"You will carry his legacy well," Padmé said. Kara had chosen her own family name in honor of her fallen friend. Directly translated, Wipper'lom meant in their native tongue 'friend of Wipper', but the true meaning, Kara had told her, was something Basic had no words for, something in between best friend and soul's companion. "The Senate voted to pass the anti-slavery bill because of your story and your pleas. No longer can they hide their shame behind the shield of professed ignorance. Not when the evidence of their negligence stands bravely before them, looking them in the eyes."

"I hope with this bill comes action."

Bail laughed uncomfortably. Being a politician he was used to evasiveness, non-answers, and the usual methods to avoid committing anything concrete in word to his fellow politicians, but it felt dirty to have to talk in such a manner to an ex-slave who had been through so much. He had been mildly shocked when evidence of Orn Free Taa's corruption surfaced in the aftermath of the coup on Ryloth, and the new governor Thothlis had immediately recalled the older Senator once his ownership stakes in the clans' slave holdings became clear, replacing him with someone who couldn't have been more unlike her predecessor in every way. Apparently the ex-senator had more connections than they knew about, having been freed by bounty hunters in a daring escape while being transferred back to his home planet. Orn Free Taa may be free for now, but Bail had a feeling that the pampered ex-senator would not much enjoy life as a fugitive.

"As you've already seen, Senator Wipper'lom, action and the senate are far from synonymous. But with more senators like you who truly understand the failings of the Republic, I pray that things will change for the better."

* * *

"Believe, you do, that Ventress was not associated with the Sith?"

"I don't think so," Obi-Wan answered. "Her skills were rudimentary...clumsy. Even the dark side she wielded more like a padawan. And she used the lightsaber she had with Master Narec, not a sith weapon."

"It makes no sense," Mace Windu said, his eyebrows frowned in confusion. "She could have been a powerful tool for the Sith. For them to let her wander the galaxy freely as a glorified bounty hunter just doesn't add up...unless the sith are extinct once more."

"Or the sith master found a new apprentice," Adi Gallia suggested, "and has no use for her. It's a shame Padawan Asajj couldn't be taken alive. The Council would have had many questions to ask her."

"The senator assures me the explosion was an accident...but I sense a deep loathing in her. She takes her cause quite personally."

"Because of the boy," Ki-Adi-Mundi said, bringing up for the first time in the meeting the person whose brilliant presence in the Force cast a shadow upon the minds of everyone seated in the council room. "Because Skywalker himself was a slave. Do you think he's dangerous?"

"He could be," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully, "but so can we all. His attachment to the senator is...quite remarkable, actually, their bond strongly resembling a master-padawan bond. Stronger, even. And not at all that healthy. It's a bit manipulative, actually, if you think about. More than a bit manipulative, seeing how the boy has had a fixation on the her for years and at some point, way too early in my opinion, she decided to indulge it...which I really don't...but never mind all that. What matters is that, for now, he is as dangerous as she chooses him to be."

"It was a mistake to let have let the boy go," Kit Fisto stated. "Senator Amidala has already shown that there is more to her than meets the eye."

 _And what would you have done_ , Obi-Wan wondered.  _Hold the boy as an unwilling prisoner in the temple under the guise of training?_

"Transparent her motives are," Yoda interrupted from his dais, "even if questionable, her methods can be."

"Yet she flaunts the boy openly in the Senate," Fisto countered. "The more prominent she becomes, the more attention they will both receive. One cannot hide the boy's presence in the Force from the sith forever."

"Then it would be wise for the Council to keep a close eye on both of them," Dooku said, "if only to protect the senator as well as young Skywalker from the sith."

Obi-Wan chuckled. Vanity was not befitting of a Jedi, but he could have sworn that his amount of gray hairs had doubled since they had taken off for Ryloth. "I don't envy the poor soul who gets signed up for that duty."

Knowing his luck, his hair was going to get a lot grayer in the coming years.

* * *

Red on red. Blue on green. They dueled through the night, arms and legs flipping callously through the air, vibrant with the ever present pulse of their twin lightsabers. He was strong, but he made her better, with each duel forcing, compelling the elder Sith to come up with new ways to fend off her student. This was how it was supposed to be, Padmé thought. Arrogance was a trait of the Sith, but in their pride, no master had come to the realization that they had anything more to learn after slaughtering their own master, and certainly not from their own apprentices. But then, no sith before had taken on practically the Force itself as a student.

They fought until they teetered at the edge of the precipice, where one false step would plunge them deep into the abyss, far below the Works level of Coruscant they trained on. This had once been Sidious's lair, and though Padmé did not like to revisit the footsteps of her old master, it was a practical location, far away from prying eyes, for their spar sessions when on Coruscant. A light rain fell through the mist onto her brow as Anakin's blows pushed her torso out into the open, but with one kick she grazed him on his stomach, throwing him off balance enough for her to leap over him back to the relative safety of the warehouse interior. He followed her, somersaulting a jump three times in the air.

"Show off," she snarled, and rather than rest and give him a chance to resume the offensive, Padmé dodged to her left and slash viciously at Anakin, who landed awkwardly and was kept off balance by her attacks. He was stronger, but she was quicker, and the more ferocious his attacks became, the more Padmé drew from the Force, more than she ever thought possible. Suddenly, she felt a foot kick her right hip, pushing her sideways as she brought both lightsabers parallel to fend off a strike. Immediately she cursed her mistake as Anakin's free saber came to her neck.

"Yield." His eyes were whimsical, barely a glint of sweat on his head, and for a moment Padmé resented how easy dueling came to Anakin. She still won her share of their rights, but his improvements were obvious as more and more he used his wiles rather than relying on brute strength, though the latter didn't hurt either.

"Fuck you," she spat, deactivating her blades. As soon as he deactivated his, she slapped him in the face.

"What was that for," he asked, half hurt, half amused.

"For being so good. And hot." She reached in to kiss him, standing on her toes to reach his lips. "And so kriffen tall...fuck, I liked it when you were closer to my height." A memory came to her of one of the first times they made love. Force, were his shoulders so thin at the time? The thought made her feel dirty now, even as with that thought came her own memories of pleasure at that time.

"When being with me would have sent you to jail," Anakin asked after another desperate kiss.

"Darth Jailbait had a good ring to it. Shame the Force forced Vader on you."

"Some things were meant to be." They sat at the edge of the platform, feet dangling above thousands of feet of empty darkness, listening to the clangs of heavy machinery and industry in the distance. "Not quite Naboo, huh?"

"Not quite." Padmé gripped the hands of her husband, resting her head onto his shoulder. This felt natural, and at this moment she thanked the gods for his height, their bodies fitting perfectly as man and wife. "You did good, Ani. On Ryloth."

"Thanks love." He caressed her small, delicate hand, studying every faint line along her fingers, thinking about how no one would ever suspect that they would be capable of some of the fiercest sith lightning this side of the Kessel Run. "We did good things, but I still have a ways to go."

"I think we should reconsider our training regimen," Padmé said after a few blissful moments of silence. Their attachment, their need for each other was so complete, so undeniable that many would call it unhealthy. The Jedi would consider it a threat, while her old sith master would see it as weakness, but she liked the feeling of so fervently needing someone, and being needed back with such intensity. As for Anakin, she realized he could not imagine a different existence at this point, as they had been together in one form or another for a little more than half of his short lifespan.

"How so," he asked anxiously.

"There's really no need to be so formal with things. We're not Jedi. And certainly not Siths like Bane either. Who cares about master, or student, or what silly title some maniacs decided upon thousands of years ago? We have no rules, besides what we choose impose upon ourselves. So kriff that. If you consider yourself a master, so be it. If you think you still have more to learn, then learn. Force knows I'm learning from you every day...so just talk to me. Tell me where you are inside, what you want, and we'll grow and become more powerful...together."

"I like that."

"I like you," Padmé said, pointing her finger on his lips.

"I love that you like me."

"I love that you love that you like me."

"I love you," Anakin said dreamily, lost in his wife's eyes again.

"I love you more."

As they kissed, a deranged voice screeched from the back of the warehouse, rudely interrupting their romantic reverie.

"Monsters! You're both monsters, twisted...atrocities! The both of you are insane!"

They turned their attention to a cage in the corner of the warehouse. Inside, covered in and reeking of his own waste and shaking uncontrollably, was Orn Free Taa, former senator of Ryloth. Immediately, he regretted catching the attention of the two siths.

"I'm so sorry...please forgive me! I didn't mean what I said...it's just the hunger...and the pain..., oh I can't stand the hunger..."

Padmé laughed. "Ani, it's your turn to feed him."

"Sorry angel. I forgot about it when I lost myself in your eyes."

"Please," the twi'lek begged, crying, "please just let me go. I swear I won't breathe a word of this to anyone...I'll disappear, no one will ever find me, just please...anything but this...cage."

They walked back indoors together, holding hands until they reached a small locker. Summoning the door open with the Force, Anakin took out a small, rancid bowl. Inside was a pile of ground up feadle bugs from the planet of Felucia. They smelled awful, tasted worse, but the true hell was the poison that ran through one's body once they were consumed, resulting in the most vile pain and aches to those unfortunate enough to swallow one. Fortunately for most, the poison was never fatal, but Padmé guessed that Free Taa wished now that it was.

Anakin knelt and gently set the bowl into the cage, and Free Taa's eyes opened wide in fear.

"No! No! Not those! Please..."

He received no mercy from the two siths, who just stared at him until his will wore down, and his primal hunger won over his rationality. Grabbing the bowl greedily, he shoved the bugs into his mouth, wincing visibly with every bite.

"Should we cut off his other lekku tonight," Anakin asked.

"I was thinking sith lightning," Padmé mused in the sweetest voice. She raised one palm, but the old politician was so busy eating he didn't even notice it.

"How about we practice some good old fashioned Force chokes? He's got so many chins...I still can't get a good grasp on his throat."

Watching the former senator pour the last of his foul dinner down his throat, Padmé ran her hand down her husband's back approvingly. "Lead the way, Lord Vader."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be at least one sequel, "Darth Padmé and that business on Cato Neimoidia", though I don't know when I'll get the chance to start it.


End file.
